The Death Digimon Part 1: New World
by angelluke
Summary: Koushirou wakes up in a very strange world, meeting some strange people. Where is he? And Where are the others? *READ "The Death Digimon: Overture" IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE PROLOGUE YET* Taishirou! Taichi and Koushirou. BoyxBoy. Light Takari.
1. The Little Magi

**It is April 24th, I do NOT have class today (semester's over!) and It's time for the beginning of the main event!**

**For those of you going "Really! it's a crossover with Final Fantasy! I didn't want to read _this!_" Don't throw things at me yet! I have a plan, I have an actual story with a real plot, not just "let me take the Digimon characters and have the Final Fantasy 9 story with them adding in Dialogue occasionally." Even if this isn't your cup of tea, give it a try, hopefully I'll surprise you.**

**If you REALLY can't stand crossovers, I'm sorry =( *dodges the knives thrown at me* **

**For those of you who like the idea, or are willing to bear with me, thank you =) I hope to not disappoint.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or Final Fantasy 9 (nor do I own any of the other Final Fantasies for that matter).**

* * *

The Little Magi

_Where am I? What are those noises? My head hurts... Tentomon? Taichi?_

The last thing Koushirou could remember was the attack of those evil Digimon in front of Taichi's apartment. What did they say again? Send them to another world? Where was he? The red head's vision was very... white... but things slowly began to focus.

"Hello? Are you alright?"

Just a few inches from his face was a young boy. Koushirou couldn't really see his face, clouded by the shadow cast from his large-brimmed hat. The collar of his blue coat was also pulled high over his neck and reached where his mouth probably was, all he could see was the yellows of the boys eyes. Wait... yellow? people's eyes weren't normally yellow... who was he?

"Please don't be dead!" he said, in a worried tone.

Koushirou stirred, his limbs weak and wobbly. "Where... where am I?"

"Oh, thank goodness you're all right, I thought you might be dead. Um... You're in Alexandria, city. I found you here unconscious."

_Alexandria? _Koushirou took in the surroundings. Old stone buildings, a small church, a rickety old dock with a rowboat... _Well this isn't Alexandria, Egypt... in fact this doesn't look like anywhere I'm familiar with, not unless I went back in time a few centuries. Wait a second, is this another world?_

"Uh oh... Did you lose your memory?"

"N-no." _What am I supposed to tell him? It's not like I'm familiar with this world. _"I was attacked." It wasn't a lie, but it might've been enough of an excuse to get him out of the whole 'I'm from another world' explanation, assuming this kid would believe him.

"Oh... I'm sorry, I heard about there being some thieves in the alleys around here." he readjusted his large hat.

"Hey! Slave!" called another kid from inside the small church, "I thought we were going to see the show, not talk to the dead!" he had a long nose and a big rat tail, with raggedy red clothes. "Oh, you're not dead? What's that on your arm?"

The rat kid pointed to some strange kind of metal "glove" attached to Koushirou's right arm. It was mostly red and black, and there were two sharp "claws" pointing forward form the knuckles.

Koushirou found himself in that whiteness from before, only momentarily, face to face with Tentomon.

"Tentomon! You're safe!"

"I am... But I can't be there next to you." His voice grew sad. "I can't survive in the world you're in, I'm not strong enough, and they're no connection to the digital world either."

"So you turned into a weapon?"

"With the help of the two that sent us here, yes. I don't know what their motive is but it's clear they're not trying to kill you. You were all unconscious before you got to this world, and they told us as much."

"And you trusted them?"

"We did because I think deep in our hearts, we knew they weren't lying. We got the power to Gear Evolve, change into something that can help you in this world. I don't know how they can do that, or where they're from. Perhaps it is because Digimon cannot survive in this world that they sent you all here instead."

"Will you be able to change back?"

"I think so, we've always been able to evolve back before, why not now? I just don't think I can in this world. Koushirou, I know you can find your way back with the others, and I'll help you as much as I can as a digi-gear."

"Alright, I guess I don't really have a choice."

"Koushirou, before I go, when you find Taichi..."

"I know," Koushirou's voice weakened, remembering the pressure he already had before arriving in this place.

"Whenever you need me, I'm right their with you." his claw pointed to Koushirou's heart, and the whiteness faded.

Before he knew it, he was standing on the streets of Alexandria again, with the two children standing in front of him.

"You gonna answer me?" the rat kid asked.

Koushirou snapped into reality. "It's a gift... A way to fight, if I need to."

"You got a weapon and you still got mugged? Ha! You're weak!"

The red head scowled, "Well for your information, it was a surprise attack by an obviously well skilled hoodlum!"

"Oh relax, don't get yer undies in a twist. Look, the sun's starting to set! If we don't go NOW, we're gonna miss the show!"

"Oh right," the other kid spoke up. "Do you want to come with us?"

"Hey hey hey! Did I give him permission to join us?"

"I'm sure you won't mind, would you?"

"Fine, do whatever you want, but let's just go NOW!"

"Well, would you like to come?"

"Um... I was going to look for my friends, though I don't really know where they are..." Koushirou responded, since he didn't have anything else to do, per say.

"Well then come to the show with us, lot's of people are going, maybe they'll be there too."

The Chosen Child of Knowledge doubted it, but it was a start. Hopefully they wouldn't be too far away. "Alright, I'll go with you."

"Yay! We can be friends too! My name's Vivi."

"Izumi, Koushirou, but just Koushirou is fine."

"I thought I said, NOW, as in: not in five minutes, not in two seconds, NOW!" the rat kid called from atop the bell tower of the church. He apparently had already moved ahead.

"His name is Puck," Vivi laughed, "and we should go before he gets any madder."

Koushirou followed his young friend into the church, where the robed kid climbed a central ladder up to where Puck stood, now holding a smaller ladder in one arm. Next to the central steeple was a small white creature with purple bat wings.

"Fascinating creature."

"I'm a moogle, kupo. I'm Kupo!"

"Moogles, huh? You remind me of the Digimon from back home."

"You'll find moogles all over the world," it was another moogle, of which walked up from behind, clad in yellow.

"Stiltzkin! Leaving for your journey already, kupo?"

"Yes, I shall be moving on soon. Young man, moogles are all over the world, I'm surprised you haven't seen one before."

Koushirou mentally punched himself, having put himself in a scenario like this, he had to think of a good answer fast. "Oh, I've seen them before!" he said in his fast-speaking, obviously-lying tone, "I was just commenting on how fascinated I am with that, really strange creatures in my opinion, but also very unique and-"

"Hey 'Shirou! How many times did I say NOW! Do I have to throw this ladder at you to get it through your thick skull!"

"Hoho... your friend seems to be quite lively." Stiltzkin spoke. "Well if you see any moogles they're great for sending mail."

_Mail! _he thought. "Before I go, Could you write some letter's for me?" Stiltskin pointed to Kupo, of which Koushirou now faced.

"I can write to the other moogles, kupo!"

"Could you send them mail then? Tell them to keep and eye out for anyone named Taichi, Takeru, or Hikari, and tell them Koushirou is in Alexandria looking for them." He spelled out the names as fast as Kupo could write while climbing up the ladder to a very pissed off Puck.

"Kupo! I got it down!"

"Thanks, Kupo!" he yelled, finally reaching the top of the church.

Puck was angrily tapping his foot at the top of the steeple, glaring at the Chosen Child. "Well it's about time!"

"Sorry about that." the redhead spoke, rubbing the back of his head.

Not wanting to waste anymore time, the trio moved from the top of the church steeple to the nearby rooftops. Because the buildings were all crammed together in this city, it wasn't difficult traversing over the streets. This was the first time Koushirou got a good view of Alexandria, as Vivi named it. In a word, "breathtaking." It was a fairly medieval feeling city complete with a castle off in the distance; the castle was massive with a pillar piercing from the center in what appeared to be a large sword with a mirror-like coating. Also visible was a large ship of some kind, docked right in front of the castle, rather strange in the eyes of the Chosen Child.

Connecting the gaps between rooftops were wooden planks just laying there, rather strange, though it must've been puck laying them out, seeing as he guided the two others effortlessly. The first, however, was quite difficult to get across, as both Vivi and Koushirou were fairly intimidated by the lack of secure footing.

"Just cross!" shouted the already irritated rat kid.

"B-but..." Vivi stuttered.

Koushirou cautiously tip-toed across the makeshift bridge, then helping the younger boy cross through verbal encouragement. It was a lot more helpful than Puck shouting "Just do it!" The second board was a little more frightening, as it fell... Vivi had to jump to avoid falling to his death. Puck was laughing hysterically while Koushirou tried to comfort the poor kid, who was barely able to hold onto the ledge.

Luckily, there weren't any such problems with the next few planks they were made to cross, and Vivi lost that falling fear quick enough; he was a brave little boy. They eventually came to a gap between the nearby buildings and the walls around the castle grounds.

"Should we be doing this?" Koushriou asked.

"Don't be such a baby!" Puck yelled, laying down the ladder he had been carrying to create another bridge.

Vivi didn't really say anything, just gave a joyful look and crossed the ladder, and Koushirou gave up worrying as well. The sky was getting dark, and it was just the cover they needed to climb down the wall and sneak behind the back row of seats for the performance. In all honesty, they probably wouldn't have needed the cover of night as most of the audience was more transfixed on the stage; music was playing. Koushirou noticed that this show apparently was being performed on that large ship from before. It must've been a traveling show much like puppeteer carts that were often depicted in medieval movies, though on a much grander scale.

Before much longer, the music stopped, and the audience applauded; the show was about to start. Sparklers started flying as the band's stage was lifted into the air, twirlers flying with sparks everywhere, and before long, small fireworks were bursting in many pretty colors all around the old ship. It was a marvelous introduction, as Koushirou thought, to an exciting play. He forced his focus away to look at people in the crowd, hoping maybe one of the others had found their way to this show like Vivi suggested earlier. Unfortunately, there seemed to be no such luck.

"Really cool, huh!" Vivi whispered to the red head.

"Yeah, it's nice."

"Something wrong?" the child spoke, seeing the look of doubt in Koushirou's eyes.

"I was hoping to see one of my friends here, but I can't seem to find any of them."

"What do they look like?"

"Well, one is a girl, she wears a lot of pink and has short hair. She'll look pretty different than the other people here, that's Hikari. Another is a boy with blond hair, though he's usually wearing a white hat, his name is Takeru. The last one is taller than the rest of us, and he's got some really wild hair, you couldn't miss him if you saw him. His name is... Taichi." The name didn't quite leave his lips like it was supposed to, instead it lingered on his tongue. You'd expect it to be a positive thing, but instead it was kind of bitter, and sour, a reminder that they were really separated in a world none of them had ever been in before, and without their Digimon companions.

"If I see them, I'll let you know. Don't be sad, Koushirou."

That comment brought a little happiness to the Chosen Child's face. "Thank you, Vivi. It's nice to hear that."

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to them?"

His eyes shifted away from the bright yellow ones of the child. "Well I really don't know to be honest. We were separated when were attacked by these two... um..."

"Monsters?"

"I guess you could call them that."

"The mist is very dangerous." he said, his tone becoming melancholic, "I hope they're okay."

The... _mist_? Koushirou almost said it, but he didn't want to sound too foreign, especially to a smart child like Vivi. _So... there are monsters in this world? Maybe this place is more dangerous that it seems._ A booming voice interrupted his thoughts, and it came from the direction of the stage.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" He was a large man in big, royal robes. He had a fluffy beard and mustache with a pinkish hue, and a blond wig of long hair on top. Two aardvark-like ears were popped through the wig, and Koushirou wondered if he was anything like Puck. "Tonight's performance is a story that takes place long, long ago. Our heroine, Princess Cornelia, is torn from her lover, Marcus. She attempts to flee the castle, only to be captured by her father, King Leo. When our story begins, Marcus, having heard of this, crosses swords with the king. And now, Your Royal Majesty Queen Brahne, Your Highness, Princess Garnet, noble ladies and lords, and our rooftop viewers, Tantalus proudly presents 'I Want to Be Your Canary'!"

The large man gave a bow, lighting projections hurled through the background, and he was joined by several other actors, some as guards for him and others as Marcus as his allies armed with swords.

"We shall back thee, kinsman!"

"Pray, sheathe thy swords! This villain is mine alone!"

"Nay, kinsman! For I, too, have lost a brother to this fiend!"

"What ho? Out, vermin! Away! Thou darest bare thy sword before the king! All who stand in my way will be crush'd"

"Treacherous Leo, my kinsman's suffering shall not be in vain! For I shall instruct thee his incomparable pain!"

A battle began with the actors swinging swords back and forth, Marcus with King Leo, and the other three dueling with guards around the stage. The shorter, shirtless member of the "good guys" put his hand out, and fire magically flew around the guard, making him flee. At the same time, the red headed actor "slew" another guard, and the third blond actor used a combination of his sword and a spell that had a meteor crash onto the remaining guard.

"I know what spells those are supposed to be." Vivi muttered over to Koushirou.

"You do?"

"Yup, I know how to use Fire, but mines not that strong yet. And I've heard of a Meteor spell but I don't know how to do that one yet."

King Leo cast some stage magic of his own, engulfing Marcus in a bright light, causing him to kneel in his weakened state. The others came to his aid, helping him to his feet and attacking the King to get him off guard.

"What spell is that?"

"I'm not sure. Might be white magic, I'm not very good with that."

_So magic exists in this world... Fascinating... I wonder how that works. Surely there must be some sort of explanation._

"What are you thinking about?"

"Oh, I've just never seen magic used before. How does it work?"

"Well I'm not really sure of that myself. I just focus my mind on the spell, and it happens."

"Can you two shut up!" Puck whisper-shouted, "I can't hear what they're saying!"

Returning attention to the show, King Leo staggered up the "stone" stairway to the top of the stage's castle. "Thou hast not seen the last of me, Marcus!" He continued to stagger off stage, with the blond actor chasing him, until of course the red headed actor stopped his pursuit.

The two actually ran into the aisle in front of the audience and began a sword fight. They took turns swiping their blades at one another, either jumping or ducking the swings, and dashing back and forth across the aisle. Koushirou noticed glare reflecting off the swords and began to wonder if those swords were real. Up till now he thought they were props, but when the blades clashed together there was a metallic sound, confirming that yes, those were, in fact, real swords. The many nobles in the front of the audience showered gold coins onto the stage and the aisle.

"Wow, that was really neat!" Vivi said.

"Yeah, look at all that gil!" Puck added, rubbing his hands together.

"This show reminds me a lot of King Lear..." Koushirou muttered, a little too loudly.

"King Lear?" Vivi questioned.

"Oh, um..." _crap, what do I tell him? _"It's this very old book I read one time, you see, it's not THAT similar just a little, probably because of the characters." he rattled a little.

"Oh, I wouldn't know. I haven't read many books, mostly books about food."

"Food?"

"My grandpa taught me how to read, but the only books he had were about how to cook. I learned how to make some really good soup."

"Hey, you two, let's move up closer and get a better view of the stage!" it was Puck calling out.

Koushirou would've protested if the other two didn't rush into the audience before he could make a word. Reluctantly, he followed behind, pushing through the seats of people while being given some unhappy glares and comments. "Sorry!" "Parton me!" "Excuse me!" Before he knew it they were in the front aisle where the sword fight began not too long ago. Now they their attention returned to the stage, King Leo had walked back out.

"Tonight, I shall finally see my daughter Cornelia betroth'd to Prince Schneider! And then Prince Scneider and his kingdom will be mine! Gwahahaha!" Two of the guards brought out Marcus, restrained. "Why, my poor Marcus! Hark, lad. No matter how much though dost treasure Cornelia... no matter how deeply she might believe she doth love thee... never shall I see her marry a peasant such as thee! When yon bell strikes three... Under the axe thou shall be! Furthermore..."

At that moment, several actors popped up from what must've been some trap doors. There was a moment of silence between them, making Koushirou wonder if this was part of the play. Marcus broke free of the guards to hug the girl, clad in a white and pink jacket.

"Oh, Marcus! I missed you so!" she cried, burying her face into his shoulder. I wish never to leave thy side. Prithee, lead me from this place!"

"See, King Leo? Thou shouldst give them thy blessing!"

"Never! Never leave his side, thou sayest? Foolish banter! I'll not allow it! Cornelia shall marry none other than this man-Prince Schneider!" The armor wearing actor looked clueless. Maybe he was new? "Is that not so, Prince Schneider?"

"M-Marry the princess? Me!" the crowd laughed, at the humor.

"Aye! And this traitorous crew, I will put to death!" Marcus and his ally made quick work of the guards, forcing them to retreat, but King Leo persisted, nonetheless. "Pray, sweet daughter, come home to the castle with me."

"Nay, Father! I shan't return!"

"Cornelia... Trouble me no more. This wedding is for thine own welfare. Be mindful of that."

Marcus stepped forward, "Not if I can help it! Now is my moment of vengeance! For my parents, and for my love, Cornelia..." he brandished his sword, "I shall cut thee down!", Marcus went to strike down the evil king, but none other than Princess Cornelia stepped in front of the blade at the last moment. The audience gasped, the goofy Prince Schneider looked frantic, and Marcus seemed to be in some disbelief. "No... Cornelia!"

"Mar...cus, forgive me. I still love my father..." both the king and the prince knelt to her side as she spoke her dying words, "Prithee, forgive my selfishness, Father, and spare my sweet Marcus..." And she died.

Sobs could be heard in the audience at this sorrowful seen, even a sniffle from Vivi, but Koushirou didn't mind, it was a play after all. It's not like that girl was actually dead.

"What have I done! Am I never to hear her loving voice again!"

Something about that scene put him in his current situation, and he thought back to Taichi. _What if something bad has happened to him, am I going to hear his voice again?"_

"Am I cursed never again to feel her soft touch!"

_Taichi..._

"O, cruel fate! Thou hast robbed me of all I treasure!" And Marcus stabbed himself with his sword without hesitation.

"Wow, what a show!" called Puck.

"Yeah... Koushirou? You're crying."

"Huh? Oh, hehe..." he didn't realize but there were some tears in his eyes, was he losing hope already? "It's just a show, Vivi. I'll be fine." he lied, not wanting to tell Vivi the real reason of his sorrow.

"Hey, you!" two guards, not stage guards, but the castle guards, yelled out to the three.

"Run, fools!" Puck showed, leaping back into the audience for a quick escape.

Unfortunately, neither Vivi or Koushirou were that nimble, and they were forced to run up the aisle and onto the stage, while chased by the armored knights.

"Get away from us!" Vivi shouted.

Koushirou's heart was pounding, this was not a situation he wanted to be in. The actors looked completely baffled, and were too in shock to make a move. Vivi reached forward and demanded that the knight's stay back, but when they didn't, fire shot from his arms. Unfortunately, they didn't fly as far as he wanted them to, and instead the flames fell onto the coat of the actress still playing dead. She jumped to her feet immediately, screaming, and flinging off the jacket over the edge of the stage, where the flames burnt out.

"Princess Garnet!" one of the actors called out.

"Princess Garnet?" one of the guards called.

The actor playing Prince Schneider broke from character and pointed his sword at the blond actor and Marcus, who also stopped his act.

"Princess, you are returning with me to the castle!"

"Steiner, I'm sorry, but I won't!"

Koushirou had no idea what was going on. Real swords were being pointed, apparently this girl was this castle's actual princess who was trying to leave? Vivi was shaking in the face of the armed knights. King Leo retreated somewhere off stage. And the two other actors quickly revealed their weapons and clashed swords with the knights.

"Can't you see she doesn't want to go with you?" the blond called out where taking a swipe at Schneider... er... Steiner.

"You fiends! I will not let you apprehend the princess!"

One of the guards was occupied with Marcus, but the other went for Koushirou and Vivi. He was too shaken to do that fire magic again, so Koushirou had to act, and fast. He looked to the gauntlet still strapped to his fist, and thought about Tentomon. When the knight got close, Koushirou punched forward with the glove, though it didn't though through the armor, it apparently had a strong effect, as he keeled over a little, but the next part surprised everyone. They weren't big, but some electricity shot from the end of the fist, shocking their attacker.

"I-I wont forget that!" he shouted, running back towards the castle, cradling his chest.

"Whoa..." Koushirou muttered, as well as Vivi, and both the other actors. The princess seemed too transfixed on what was going on around her to notice.

Without warning, the ship started moving, leaving the port where the audience was. People were screaming, Koushirou fell on his butt, swords were clashing, the other knight rolled off into the audience, and what surprised Koushirou the most was that this ship was rising! Somehow this massive, wooden structure was a flying device, taking them high into the air.

"What's going on!" he shouted, but no one answered him.

Things only got worse from there; large harpoon-like hooks were fired at the ship, one landing right in the center stage, with another hitting just below into the hull of the ship. These harpoons were attached to cannons from the castle and Koushirou could see a very large, disgustingly obese woman with a terrible skin complexion. She appeared to be very angry and another, much larger cannon was revealed from above her balcony. The red head wondered why he always ended up in these situations briefly, before that cannon fired, but it wasn't an ordinary cannon ball. Instead of a solid object, some fiery creature appeared from the cannon. It hovered about the stage growing every second that passed.

"It's a bomb!" Vivi shouted in horror.

"It's going to explode!" The blond actor shouted.

"You think I'll fall for something as rediculous as-" Steiner was cut off as he turned his head and noticed the massive creature getting white with heat as it prepared for an explosion.

At the last moment, the princess stepped in front of everyone and conjured up a magical shell around her, the knight, the actors, as well as Vivi and Koushirou, thankfully. It exploded a second later, and the heat could be felt even through the magical shield. Smoke was everywhere, Koushirou was coughing like crazy, and from what he heard, he wasn't the only one. After it cleared some, he noticed how destroyed the stage was, but at the very least, the explosion severed the chains connecting the harpoons to the ship, and it flew onward, out of range of the castle, though it wasn't in good shape at all. The ship was practically falling apart, even some of the parts of the ship fell off and crashed into city below. Koushirou could only hope no one was harmed.

The ship got even more unstable as it exited the city walls, and they began losing speed. Everyone on the stage was holding on for dear life. Being so near the edge, Koushirou could see a forest below where the ship would inevitably crash. Another explosion tilted the ground and caused everyone to slide. The princess was screaming alongside Vivi who just looked shocked, as they slid off the edge of the ship just as they started hitting trees, and Koushirou hoped the branches broke their fall without breaking them. Steiner was screaming "PRINCESS!" at the top of his lungs, and let go to try and catch her, but he knocked into a harpoon on the slide down, and fell off in a different direction. The last one to fall was the blond, who was holding on only by the friction against the wooden flooring, but gravity became too much for him, and he slid into Koushirou, knocking them both off the side of the ship, and that's the last thing the red head felt before losing consciousness.

Till Next Time...

* * *

**Phew! This chapter took a very long time to write, much longer than I was expecting. I actually just finished it before I posted it. But yeah, please don't kill me if it wasn't what you were expecting =(**

***BTW sorry for the rushed feeling between Koushirou and Vivi between scenes of the play, since those scenes aren't shown in game I have no idea what they're supposed to be seeing.***

**I "word-for-worded" the play because... it's a play, and I felt it should stay that way. Which is why it took SO long for me to write. Switching between writing one sentence of dialogue and watching the scene from someone's walkthrough on YouTube turns what should be one minute into 30 minutes.**

**About language issues... since the Chosen Children are from Japan and should speak Japanese... For starters, FF9 is in Japanese also, though I'd expect them to actually speak English based on the medieval England style, so you can assume that the 9 cast knows Japanese, and in the Japanese Anime of Digimon, there's no problems communicating with characters like Wallace/Willis who's American, nor is there a problem communicating with the American Chosen Children when the Season 2 Children go around the world and rally the other Children. And since American's almost never know Japanese, I'd assume the Chosen Children Know English anyway, which isn't uncommon to know as a second language anywhere else in the world. Plus Koushirou's smart, I'd expect him to know multiple languages, Same with Hikari and even Takeru. Taichi's just as smart as Daisuke who has no problems when he goes to America so there's that assumption. In fact the only language that seems to be a problem is Russian, but it's not like anyone cares about Russian anyway, am I right! *Gets punched in the mouth by a Russian viewer***

**Anyway, I'll be taking more time with these chapters, though I'll try to get the first few out as fast as possible so you at least get to know what's happening with everyone else. At least this chapter was much longer! =)**

**Hoping for at least 10 Reviews from you guys, that's my quota! ^_^**


	2. Dark Forest

***The design of Koushirou's glove changed a little. I edited the chapter if you haven't noticed already but this is the new description:**

"**The rat kid pointed to some strange kind of metal "glove" attached to Koushirou's right arm. It was mostly red and black, and there were two sharp "claws" pointing forward form the knuckles."**

**Basically it's meant to look a bit more like Loz's weapon from Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children**

**Before I based it more on Rikku's Godhand, as I was planning on having him make use of some traditional "Alchemy" Final Fantasy abilities, but I liked the newer idea better when I thought of it. I might still have him use items that way though. I'm not sure how I'll incorporate that yet, though.**

**Disclaimer: Final Fantasy and Digimon are not owned by me, they are owned by some other people.**

* * *

A Dark Forest

"Hey! Are you alright?" a voice called out.

Koushirou's eyes opened, but his vision was blurry. Pain surged through his side and down his back, probably from the long fall to the ground. He was alive though, and nothing seemed broken, though he was dazed from this whole experience.

"T...Taichi?" he whispered, letting out a few coughs.

"Taichi? Never heard of 'um. I'm Zidane." the Chosen Child's vision started to clear and he could fully see the blond actor from the stage, now kneeling over to check for wounds. For the first time, Koushirou also noticed some monkey-like tail swinging back and forth. Strange, but he dismissed it just as he did with Puck. "That fall was pretty rough, you don't look seriously hurt. Thank's for breaking my fall by the way." he laughed.

"My _pleasure..._" he scowled, pushing himself from the ground, Zidane helping him stand. Reality snapped into Koushirou's brain as he remembered the crash. "Wait, the ship? What happened to it? Are the other's alright?"

Zidane pointed over the cliff a few feet from them; just beyond that was the ship. Some fires could be seen around the wreckage, and the ship was clearly not going to be flying again anytime soon. In spite of the damages, it was fairly intact, surprising after all that's happened.

"Well what are we standing here for? Let's help out!" Koushirou staggered over the the edge and began his slide down, being careful not to slip and fall on his back for the second time today.

"Wow, you've got a lot of energy!" the blond said, surprised, "What's your name?"

"Ah, pardon my manners," he called once reaching the bottom of the cliff, while watching Zidane leap down from rock to rock, "Izumi, Koushirou. Koushirou's fine."

"That's a pretty neat glove you've got. How's it work?"

"Ah..." he paused, "I don't really know to be honest. It was a gift from a friend of mine, something to keep me safe."

"I bet it's helpful with the monsters."

Koushirou nodded, not really sure how to respond. He had never had to deal with monsters in this world before, except for that bomb creature that blew up the ship, but that certainly wasn't a fight. Instead, he tried to change the subject. "So what happened there, was that the real princess?"

"Ah... yeah..." he scratched the back of his head, "it's not what you think though! We weren't planning on hurting her or anything, we were hired to kidnap her and take her to Lindblum."

Koushirou made note of that city name, "Kidnapping is still kidnapping though. Whether you were planning on hurting her or not."

"Well, we're not the kind of group to kidnap someone for anything dangerous." he defended.

"So why did you kidnap her?"

"I'm... not really sure. The Boss didn't give us the specifics. But if he accepted the job then it was for a good reason; that's how the Boss works!"

"And who's the Boss?"

"The leader of Tantalus,Baku. But it doesn't really matter, when it came time for us to kidnap her, she wanted to be kidnapped."

"Very strange..."

"Well I didn't bother to ask, it goes along with what we wanted." there was another brief silence, "Who's that kid that was with you? And what were you guys doing?"

"Oh... his name's Vivi. I met him just before we got to the show. I was looking for my friends, and he said that they might be at the show, since a lot of people were going to be there. But I didn't see them."

"Taichi?"

"Huh?" Koushirou blushed, "Oh! I'm sorry, I called you that earlier, didn't I? Sorry, I should've figured you'd connected that."

"Why so panicked? Something happen between you two?"

"N-nothing!" he sighed, "Well I guess you can tell it's not nothing, but I really don't want to talk about it."

"Alright, whatever." he said, nonchalantly, "Your business is your business."

Luckily there weren't anymore awkward silences, as they reached the crash site of the ship, still with flames in several locations. Zidane immediately ran around the side to where a large opening had pierced through the hull. A short, shirtless fellow was standing outside while another carried an unconscious body out of the burning ship.

"Cinna!"

"Oh, Zidane! You're alright!"

"What's going on here? How can we help?"

The short man, Cinna, glanced in Koushirou's direction before replying, "We've got things covered actually, this is the last of the injured," he pointed to several other's sitting outside the wreck, "and most of the fire's been put out already. Why don't you two look for the other's that fell off? That tin man was nearby but immediately charged off into the woods shouting 'PRINCESS' at the top of his lungs."

"Alright, you coming, Koushirou?"

"Sure." Koushirou really wanted to make sure Vivi was alright, not that he didn't care for the others, but the little boy was very kind and innocent. Last thing he wanted to find out was that this poor guy was injured... or worse.

Cinna had pointed in the direction that the knight, Steiner as Koushirou remembered, had charged off in. It led them through a hollowed out log and into a damp, swamp-like passage through the tree's. The red head silently thanked that he had worn his new waterproof sneakers, though they wouldn't be looking new after tonight.

"Just so you know," Zidane spoke, interrupting the Chosen Child's thoughts, "I think we're in Evil Forest."

"Evil Forest?"

"Yeah... There's supposed to be a forest under the mountains of Alexandria full of monsters. No one really knows what's in here because no one's come out alive."

"You're not trying to scare me with tall tales, are you?" Koushirou remarked, sounding more annoyed if anything.

"I'm not joking, this place really is supposed to be dangerous, I'm just letting you know incase we run into trouble."

"Trouble like what?"

There was a girl's scream off in the distance, answering Koushirou's question. Without a word the two began running in the direction of the scream. They ran through another hollowed log, only to run into the boy, Vivi, on the other end. He was on the ground, uninjured, but scared for his life.

"I-I can't... The P-princess..."

Just ahead of them was some bizarre plant-like creature with a cage of vines on its head; the princess was trapped in that cage, and Steiner had his sword brandished at the monster, demanding it to "release the princess at once!"

"Like that's going to work!" shouted Zidane, "Need some help, Rusty?" he spoke, pulling two daggers from his belt."

"Fine, but only a momentary truce. Once we return to Alexandria, you shall pay for your crimes!" the blond just rolled his eyes at the comment, but didn't say anything.

"Don't worry, Vivi. We'll take care of this thing." Koushriou assured, raising the digi-gear glove.

Zidane lunged himself at the cage of vines, his first thought to free Princess Garnet from the living prison, but he was picked up and thrown to the side like a rag doll by two massive tentacles on each side of the plant's body. Steiner charged as well, succeeding in striking the monster, though only partially. There was some strange kind of "growling" noise, probably the plant's cry of pain, and it whipped its tentacle-arm into the knight, hurling him out of the way as well. It raised both tentacles to the cage and wrapped them around the now screaming princess, as it started to sap her energy from her, in attempts to repair the damage from Steiner's sword.

"No!" Koushirou shouted, running up to punch the plant's body.

He had never been the physically strong member of the Chosen Children, but the shock from glove was more than enough to make up for the red head's lack of power. The electrical punch was enough to force the monster to release the princess from its grasp. She appeared to lose consciousness in the cage, probably due to the energy that was drained from her body.

Zidane had recovered, and again went to attack the vine cage, but this time he was grabbed like Garnet was before, and he shouted in pain as the tentacles held him high in the air, sapping his energy.

"N-No! I'm not... Giving Up!"

In a blast of hot pink light, Zidane's body transformed into a pink, glowing form, his clothes replaced with what might've been fur?

"What is that!" Koushirou called out in shock.

"Could that be... Trance!" Steiner muttered, too shocked to act.

Zidane pulled strength out of nowhere to break free from the tight grip, now hovering in the air. He pushed forward, flying at the body of the monster and release a large, blue explosion of energy directly into its face, being careful not to harm the princess in the process. It tried to fight back but Zidane easily danced around the tentacles and blasted energy at the monsters body again. It knew it couldn't win this fight, and pulled its tentacles into the trees above, pulling itself out of harms way before the glowing pink thief had a chance to strike again. Once in the tree's, it became too fast for them to have a chance to keep up, and it was gone in a flash.

"PRINCESS!" Steiner shouted, jumping up and down in anger.

Zidane, on the other hand, lost that pink glow, as his body returned to the way it was only moments before, and he kneeled over to catch his breath. Koushirou made note of the striking resemblance this "Trance" was to his Digimon evolving. A surge of power caused when someone is in danger, a surge that consumes a lot of energy and cannot be maintained for a long period of time. The only difference was it affected a person (even if that person had a monkey tail) and it didn't change him all that much, appearance wise.

Before anyone fully recovered from the ordeal, the plant monster returned, and in a split second, captured Vivi in its vines, as he now screamed and flailed.

"Vivi!" Koushirou called out.

The Chosen Child charged at the monster, but was whipped out of the way as the others were before. Zidane and Steiner prepared to charge, and Vivi remained flailing inside the cage.

"Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!"

His hands pushed down to the head of the monster and he began to cast his fire magic, like he had done onstage to fend of the attacking knights. The monster was clearly not happy with this, as it was screaming and flailing itself, as the little mage bombarded its body with multiple fire spells. Its tentacles were ablaze as well as parts of its body, and while its focus was on the flames, Steiner saw an opportunity to end this battle. He charged at the plant and thrust his sword though the body. With no tentacles to push him away, the attack was a direct hit, and juice started oozing from the monster, both its gash, and its strange mouth just below the sword. The vine cage no longer held together, and Vivi was able to jump off, now free from its grasp.

"Vivi!" Koushirou called again, "You're safe."

Unfortunately for them, as they let their guard down, the plant wasn't about to die without causing some more trouble. Zidane shouted, "Look out!" as he jumped over to a tree and up in a branch. Before Koushirou could react, a dark gas started fuming from large openings around the cage. Steiner released his sword, and fell on his back, coughing, while Vivi fell forward onto Koushiou's chest, and he fell down as well, quickly losing consciousness.

* * *

Koushirou was sitting on a couch in the Yagami household. Taichi sat next to him, looking into the red head's eyes with curiosity and confusion.

"What's wrong, Koushirou?"

Where was he? The room was as it always was, with the exception that the TV wasn't on. His parents weren't around, nor was Hikari. Not even Agumon or Tentomon seemed to be anywhere. Koushirou's eyes traveled around the room, like he was lost. But then those feelings changed from lost to worried, then to anxiety.

"Koushirou?"

He looked the the brunet. His hair was a jungle as always, and his eyes were as chocolaty as always, and piercing through Koushirou's dark eyes.

"You wanted to talk about something?"

The brunet maintained that goofy smile he always held, a smile that could only melt Koushirou's heart. He was certain his face was as pink as Piyomon's feathers, and his heart rate was rising by the second.

"Taichi... I..." where were the words? Certainly not here... he struggled to speak, his tongue seemed to swell up, his mouth grew dry, and in a flash of courage, his lips touched with Taichi's.

What did it taste like? Maybe vanilla ice cream, strawberry shortcake, or even a chocolate milkshake. Whatever it was, Koushirou loved every second of it, even if it was only just a couple seconds. Those seconds felt like forever. But suddenly, the taste grew cold and icy, and Taichi just starred at Koushirou, speechless. There was no look in his eyes, nor smile or frown, just emptiness. That's when the screaming started. The room vanished, becoming empty and dark, and first Hikari screamed as she was pulled into darkness. Then it was Sora, then Yamato next to her, as well as their Digimon partners. Soon Takeru, then Jou and Mimi, and even Tentomon and Agumon. Last was Taichi, who didn't scream, just stayed silent as he was pulled into darkness.

This nightmare was all to familiar, but something new happened. There were those deep red eyes in the background, but now a face appeared. It was monstrous, but was it a Digimon? If it was a Digimon, it was nothing like Koushirou had ever seen before. It had bull-like horns on its head, and its face was a brownish color, rough and scarred with a wicked grin full of razor sharp teeth. What was this monstrosity? Koushirou wanted to scream, but couldn't, as he too was dragged into darkness.

* * *

"Koushirou?" Tentomon asked.

Koushirou found himself in that white room again, void of any detail or any objects, just him and Tentomon in the whiteness.

"Koushirou, you're having that nightmare again, aren't you?"

"You can tell?"

"I'm in your heart right now, Koushriou, I know how you're feeling."

"Did you see that creature? Was it a Digimon?"

"I don't know, I've never seen it before."

"I have a feeling. I think that's the reason I'm here."

"That monster?"

"Maybe those two evil Digimon are with him. But what do they want?"

"Koushirou?"

"Yes, Tentomon?"

"Are you still afraid of talking to Taichi?"

"Tentomon..."

"Koushirou, please don't be afraid. Remember we talked about this?"

"I know..." his face fell to his shoes, "I just hope he's alright... wherever he is."

"I just know he'll be alright, and the others too. All of you are stronger than you think you are."

"You think so?"

"Absolutely!"

Koushirou smiled, leave it to his buggy partner to make him happy at a time like this. "Thank you, Tentomon." he gave the Digimon a hug, with a lot less squeeze this time.

* * *

"Hey, kid, you awake?"

Koushirou's eyes opened from the third time being unconscious in one night... Hovering over him was a young man with red hair that flamed redder than even Koushirou's. He remembered the man from the performance, being the same one that had dueled Zidane on stage.

"Yes... I'm awake. What happened?" he looked around the room. It was messy as numerous objects littered the floor; Koushirou figured he was inside the ship, as it looked like this room went through a crash. He was atop a bunk bed that had fallen on the bottom bunk, hopefully there wasn't anyone sleeping there during the crash.

"You all were attacked by a gas that plant monster released. Monsters like that reproduce by planting seeds in other living creatures. When those seeds grow big enough, it's hasta la vista. You're lunch."

Koushirou gulped, "So is there a way to remove those seeds?"

"Don't worry," he handed a dark vial to the Chosen Child, "this is a special medicine that kills the seeds. It's not a great taste, and the next time you take a crap, it's not going to be very pleasant, as the dead seed are going to come out that way, but you'll be fine."

He grabbed onto the vial with his gloved hand, and took a deep breath like one might do before drinking DayQuil, popped the cork, and chugged the liquid. It was thick like goo and tasted like bad alcohol. Koushirou gagged a little while trying to down it.

"I told you it wasn't going to be pleasant!" the other red head laughed.

"I wasn't prepared for it to be _that _bad." the laughing stopped. "So what's going to happen now?"

"Well, Zidane's talking to the Boss right now. He want's to rescue the princess. Typical, that boy can't get girls off his mind."

"He's going alone?"

"Well the Boss doesn't want anyone to go after her. He'd rather help us all get out of here, then die trying to rescue her."

"But... We can't just leave her!" Koushirou shouted, now standing on the bed.

"Now you sound like Zidane. He wants to take the knight, the black mage, and you. From what he said, you were a good fighter. Add the knight's strength and the black mage's fire magic, and I think you guys might have a chance at saving her."

"We can, if we work together, we'll be able to win."

"Well, if you think you can, then let's hope the Boss let's him. Anyway, I should go see how that _negotiation _is coming along." With that, the other red head left.

"Can we really get out of here alive?" it was Vivi who spoke, scaring Koushirou as he didn't notice that the "black mage", as the other red head put it, had been in the same room with him.

"I think so." he spoke, regaining his composure, "I may not look like it, but I've been through a lot of dangerous stuff. I haven't failed yet, and I still have to find my friends. So I won't be failing now either."

"Then I think we can too."

Zidane entered the room, the knight behind him giving a face that might say "I don't want to team up with this kidnapper, but I have to because I need to save the princess." It was weird being before a knight who was so easy to read.

"Hey, we're going to search for the princess." said the thief, "would you two come help?"

Koushirou and Vivi exchanged glances before answering together, "Of course!" then they faced each other again and laughed.

"Well you two seem to be getting along well." Zidane smirked.

The younger two of the group hopped off their respective beds and followed the blond through the interior of the ship. Koushirou took note of the damages and was yet again surprised how much was still in tact. He also noticed more members of Tantalus and how different they all were. It wasn't as different and strange as some of the Digimon he and the others had seen on their adventures, but these demi-humans were still fairly unique. He hoped he wasn't looking at them too strangely though. Thinking about it now, even Zidane's monkey tail was a little funny to watch swinging as he walked.

Before the exit of the ship, the red head from before was leaning against the wall, and called Zidane out before they could leave. He handed him a dark vial which Koushirou realized must've contained the same medicine for the princess. Being captured by these plant creatures, of course she would've also been infected with the same seeds.

"For when you find her..." he explained, "just make sure she drinks it all."

"Will do," Zidane responded, "And thanks, Blank."

"Whatever, just don't say I've never done anything for you."

They nodded to each other, and Blank stayed back while the four of them left the ship wreckage. Before they could continue back into the forest, however, a moogle flew by, shouting "Kupo!"

"What's a moogle doing here?" Vivi asked.

"Kupo, is there a 'Koushirou' here?" he held out a letter.

"That's me."

"Here, it's from Kupo!"

It must've been about his friends. Koushirou swiftly opened the letter; the contents were brief.

_Kupo! it's Kupo. I mailed the other moogles in Alexandria but they say they couldn't find anyone with those descriptions, Kupo. Sorry. I saw what happened with the Airship, and I know Evil Forest is below. I hope you make it out safe, Kupo._

_P.S. If that boy, Vivi, is with you, the jump rope girls wanted to congratulate you on your great jumping skills! They call you the King of Jump Rope! Congratulations, Kupo!_

Vivi acted like he blushed, not that anyone could tell with his hat blocking his face, but Koushirou pocketed the letter, urging everyone to move forward, as there was no time to lose. The moogle waved, promising to let Kupo know that Koushirou received the letter.

The forest was eerie and silent as the group pressed forward, returning to the scene of the fight between that cage monster, and passing through a narrow passage of trees. Beyond that was a clearing with a large tree stump in the center. It was hallowed in the center and had apparently collected rainwater over time. There was a small stream pouring from a branch ejected from the side. Zidane, who had a container on his belt, took the moment to collect some of that water.

"Talk about a perfect opportunity to get some fresh water."

No one else said anything, probably feeling the tension of time against them as every second that past could mean the life or death of the Princess Garnet. Just past that clearing was a grassy path where the sound of water echoed in the air.

"A waterfall?" asked Koushirou.

"Alexandria is a city on the water, Master Koushirou," Steiner spoke with a surprising amount of respect, probably because he saw the red head as a victim in this situation, much like Vivi as well. "The vast lake around the castle does pour down into the valleys below."

"So the city is literally just above us. I'm surprised we're still so close."

There was a rumbling sound, briefly before a massive pink flower with three large vines stemming from underneath burst from the nearby trees. Koushirou mentally smacked himself for losing his concentration because of the waterfall. Vivi was grabbed by one of the vines while the others went to draw their weapons, but were all swept aside from one of the vines.

"Vivi!" Koushirou cried out.

The flower creature was trying to squeeze the little mage as he screamed. Unfortunately, his arms were bound as well, and he couldn't cast a spell to defend himself. Out of nowhere, a bright arrow flew straight into the mouth of the flower monster, killing it instantly, as it dropped the boy onto the ground. As he stood and dusted off his robes, everyone looked for a source of the arrow, when Koushirou noticed a familiar, pink clad girl standing atop a branch in the trees.

"Hikari!"

"Koushirou!" She dropped down from the branch and immediately ran to the Chosen Child of knowledge, embracing him in a deep hug. "I'm so glad I found you! After all I've been through, here, I was losing hope I'd find anyone!"

"You know her?" Asked the recovered black mage.

"Ah, guys, this is my friend, Hikari. Hikari, these are some new friends, Vivi, Zidane, and Steiner the knight."

"Nice to meet you." she waved.

"Nice to meet you too, cutie." Zidane flirted, though she ignored it completely, making the blond pout.

"So how did you get here! Are you alright? Are the others with you? What happened?"

"Well, it started when I got attacked up at the top of the mountain. I was about to go towards the city up there when I got attacked by these massive creatures. I was really surprised, and just started running for the city, only to come to face with a large lake and a waterfall near the edge. I couldn't run, and instead got pushed into the water, and was washed down one of the waterfalls. It took me all the way down into this forest, and it wasn't a pleasant fall. I'm lucky to be alive from a fall like that."

"I apologize for your troubles, miss Hikari, it is a good thing you were able to survive here."

"Thank you, Mr... Steiner, was it?"

"Correct, Miss."

"Well, when I got here, I started getting attacked by more creatures, those flower things. It's thanks to my little gift," she pointed to the bow, "that I was able to beat them. As for the others, you're the first I've seen we got separated." She was careful with her words, not wanting to seem too foreign to Koushirou's new friends.

"We'll I'm just glad to see you're safe." he hugged her again.

"Miss Hikari," Steiner began, "We are in the midst of search for the Princess Garnet, who has been captured by the evil plant monsters of this forest. Would you, perchance, have seen her?"

"A princess? No you're the first people I've seen since I got here." everyone groaned, "But if they captured someone, I'd assume they'd take her to their lair. All the monsters I've seen have been coming from that direction. Maybe she's there." Hikari pointed across the pond where she fell into from before.

"Brilliant thinking! Let us hurry to the princess' aid!" Steiner declared, sword pointed forward.

"Hey, Rusty! How come you never treat me with that kind of respect?"

"Because you are an evil scoundrel who has attempted to kidnap the princess! Remember, I'm letting you help so you can be brought to justice when we return to the castle!"

Again, Zidane simply rolled his eyes.

"What's with that?" Hikari whispered to Koushirou.

"I don't know, but I'm not sure I want to get involve." Hikari simply nodded in response.

The group, having added one to their numbers, processed to hug the lake in attempts to reach the section of the forest thick with vines, that Hikari had pointed out. The closer they got the more plant monsters would attack them, yet with the combined power of each person, they were able to take down. Vivi's fire magic was most useful in clearing out their enemies, while Hikari's magical arrows were just as effective at swiftly taking out the floral army they faced. When the others asked about her bow, her response was the same as Koushirou's about his glove, that she wasn't quite sure, but it was just a gift to keep her same. The red head knew exactly what she meant, the bow was Tailmon in her digi-gear form.

It had been almost an hour since they pressed into the forest, and they had just now begun to see where the plant monsters were coming from. Vines where everywhere hanging from all directions; they were so thick that Steiner had to lead the way, slicing through the vines with his sharp sword. There came a point where vines no longer hindered their path, it was a massive cave with a giant flower in the center. It looked much like the flower monsters from before, with a sharp-tooth mouth in the center and many vines around the base, though these vines were about as thick as tree trucks and were much more intimidating to the rescue group.

"PRINCESS!" Steiner screamed.

There she was, embedded in vines against the opposite wall of the cave, right behind this plant monster. It gave a loud hiss, probably to tell its new pray that they were lunch, leaving the group in a bit of shock, not expecting their enemy to be this large.

"This is going to be a lot harder than I thought!" Zidane shouted, gritting his teeth.

Immediately, the vines began swinging violently at the group. Zidane and Hikari nimbly jumped out of the way, Koushirou and Vivi dropped flat to the ground with the tentacle flailing over them, and Steiner was left to try blocking the appendage, though the shear force sent him flying back several feet. Vivi stood and started casting his fire spells, trying to hit the main body of the monster, but he was too far, and could only hit the tentacles, which were flailing far too fast for them to stay aflame.

"I need to get closer!" he shouted, though there was no way he'd get there on his own, now with those tentacles swinging as wildly as they were.

Zidane tried to use his agility to leap from one tentacle to another, hoping to get closer, but the plant just grew angrier and threw him off too the side; meanwhile, Hikari was firing her light arrows, hoping to hit the center, but the beast was moving too wildly for her to connect a hit. In short, the battle was going nowhere, and fast; with Zidane not being able to get close, there was no way Koushirou could get close either. Steiner was having just as much trouble, though his armor and sword were providing more difficulty for the plant tentacles to deal with. The group knew Vivi was their only hope; they needed his fire magic to hit the center flower, and burn the monster from its body.

Koushirou was jumping and rolling just to stay safe from the wild, flailing limbs of the plant, when he suddenly tripped, and found himself facing a tentacle about to crash down on him. Before he could even brace himself, a flash of red lifted him up and out of the way not a moment too soon. It was that red-head from Tantalus. What did Zidane call him? Blank?

"Looks like I got here just in time."

"Blank!" Koushirou heard Zidane shout, before getting whacked away.

"Things aren't looking good here." both dodged a swing from the tentacle, as Blank spoke.

"It's Vivi, we need his fire magic to burn the flower part, but he can't get close enough."

"I have an idea. Zidane! Get over here!"

Zidane jumped onto a tentacle and flung himself over to the two, Koushirou signaled Hikari for some heavy distraction, which she nodded, while beginning to fire as many arrows as she could, though he could tell she was getting tired. Steiner remained trying to charge in unsuccessfully.

"What's up?"

"Grab the mage, carry him on your shoulders. When I give the signal, you run in and get him to use his fire to burn this monster."

"You sure?" Blank nodded, "Alright."

Zidane ran over to Vivi and hoisted him onto his shoulders, giving the kid a little surprise, meanwhile, Blank motioned Koushirou to get on his back.

"A piggy-back ride!"

"Just do it!"

He embarrassingly climbed onto Blank's back, notting that this guy was rather strong to carry the Chosen Child effortlessly, albeit he was still small for his age. Dodging another blow, he quickly charged towards the plant, being even faster than Zidane.

"When we get close, use that electric glove of yours and shock it!"

Koushirou nodded, holding on to the red head's shoulders for dear life, as he jumped over another tentacle, getting them both just in range of the body. Blank bent forward, Koushirou stood on the thief's back, and he punched into the body of fines, the claws poking into the soft body. Electricity flew into the monster, and it shrieked as the volts momentarily paralyzed the tentacles, and they froze in place.

"Now, Zidane!" Blank commanded.

He was there seconds later with Vivi on his shoulders, who started pelting the flower with fire spells as fast as he could. Koushirou saw Vivi's eyes closed, noting he must've been concentrating heavily. The tentacles recovered soon, and the four had to retreat out of the monster's range as it started flailing even harder than before, as its body grew into a massive fire.

"That's it! It's dying!" Hikari called.

The body began sinking into the ground of vines, leaving behind a massive hole of dead plant. That must've been the forest's way of preventing the fire from spreading, or at least Koushirou assumed. If it wasn't so deadly, he would be tempted to study this forest and it's strange habits.

Steiner had retrieved the princess, now carrying her bridal style. Zidane handed him the medicine Blank had given them earlier, as he placed the vial at her lips, helping her drink the seed remover.

"Princess! Please drink it all." he sounded worried, actually. It surprised Koushirou, a little.

"We need to get out of here before-" Blank was cut off but a rumbling noise. Vivi was practically shaking, while the rest prepared for another fight.

Strange looking plants crawled out from the hole and also from the direction they came from. They were green with pointy legs and flowers on their heads, they looked similar to spiders. Everyone backed away slowly, noticing another tunnel of which they could escape.

"Run!" Zidane shouted, and everyone complied without an argument.

The spiders gave chase to the group, while they ran down a narrow path, that led to a steep cliff done into a shallow river. Steiner was the first to jump down, the princess in arms, and the two Chosen Children followed suite, Hikari landing more gracefully than Koushirou. Vivi was scared to jump, and need the help of Zidane, meanwhile, Blank held of the spiders with his sword as the two jumped down, and he followed moments after.

Several spiders jumped out in front, which Koushirou punched one, and Zidane flung himself forward and slashed through another with his knives. All that was left was a straight path, as the group ran, the screams and shrieks of the plant spiders getting louder. Koushirou looked back and was shocked at the hundreds of plant spiders chasing them; the entire forest was after them. Steiner ran past Zidane, with the princess in arms, Koushirou and Hikari next, with Vivi right behind them, his arms flailing in a panic. The red headed Chosen Child looked back to Zidane who was slowing, which was very strange, being the fastest of the group, except for maybe Blank. But why were the two falling so far behind?

They had just passed the boarders of the forest, and the four of them were able to stop and look back, and that's when they noticed Zidane leap out and barrel-roll as thorny vines wrapped themselves around the trees, closing off any access into the forest. It then seemed to petrify, and the entire forest seemed to be made of stone. But where was Blank?

"Of course..." Koushirou muttered, under his breath, "they slowed down so that we could make it out in time." he decided to speak up, "Is Blank..."

Zidane looked like he wanted to throw up. He walked up to the petrified forest, banging on the vines with no success. "He sacrificed himself to save us."

Steiner stepped forward. "I'm sure when we return to Alexandria, the Queen might send a bouquet here for him, maybe. It was his tactics that vanquished the beast and rescued the princess."

"He's not dead!" Zidane shouted. It was the first time Koushirou had seen the blond so angry. "He's petrified, but I'll bring him back."

Koushirou wanted to ask just how he planned on doing that, but then again, the red head wasn't familiar with this world, the petrification, or any possible remedy for such a case; Steiner did, however, show a face that made Koushirou think they were thinking the same thoughts. For once, the knight didn't open his big mouth.

There was a rock nearby that was tilted over, and due to it's unusual shape, it provided at least some form of shelter for the group, as Zidane prepared a fire and Steiner set down the princess, who just now began to stir from her sleep.

"Where... am I?"

"PRINCESS!"

"Steiner? What... happened?"

Hikari introduced herself, as well as help explain the situation with the plant monsters. She was also reassured that she would be fine due to Blank's medicine. This reminded Koushirou of the side effects that were mentioned earlier, as he, Vivi, and Steiner felt the urge to excuse them selves not much later. Blank was right, it was rather unpleasant expelling the seeds; it was somewhat painful.

When they returned, the princess was asleep yet again, and Vivi sat down next to her and quickly passed out as well. Koushirou didn't blame them, as he was rather tired himself. The sky was still dark as night; how many hours passed since he arrived in this world? It had just started getting dark when he first arrived, and the show took up the earlier parts of the night. It must've been somewhere close to 2 or 3 in the morning. Now that the red head thought about it, he wondered how time passed in this world, and if it was anything like it did in his home world. The digital world's time seemed to be similar, if not the same as the real world's.

While Steiner and Zidane fought about taking the night watch, the two Chosen Children finally got a moment to themselves to discuss their situation.

"Is that what really happened to you when you got here? Getting chased into the river?"

"Unfortunately, yes. I appeared somewhere outside that city, in the middle of nowhere but an open field. Then I got attacked by some vicious looking creatures. I thought they might be Digimon at first, so I tried to talk to them, but I just got growling in return, like they were wild animals. When I got into the forest, it was the same with those flower monsters. I figured that the creatures in this world weren't like the Digimon, but were much more feral instead. So I fought back with this bow. Tailmon's digi-gear."

"So it is her digi-gear. Those arrows that you make... I'm sure the other's think it's magic, but it's because of Tailmon's power, right?"

"Yeah, she talked to me and told me that she couldn't exist in a world with no connections to the digital one, not for very long anyway, and those evil Digimon that attacked us gave her the power to change into a digi-gear for me, while we're in this world."

"That's exactly what Tentomon said to me when he turned into this glove. It even has his electrical powers inside. But that leads me to so many questions, like why are they helping us?"

"And why did they send us here in the first place? If they wanted to kill us, why not just do it right then and there? I'm starting to think there might be something else on their agenda. Maybe they want us to do something they can't."

"It makes sense. If Digimon can't function in this world very long, then they wouldn't be able to do it themselves. If they have the power to become digi-gears though, they wouldn't be able to do anything without a human to wield them."

"The digi-gears may also only work for their human partners, just like how Tailmon and Tentomon wouldn't be able to evolve without us."

"Alright, so let's assume that's what they want from us. Then what exactly are we supposed to do? Better yet, how do we get home without being used by them?"

Neither had an answer, and it was hard to swallow. This is the second time they've been sent to a different world that they didn't know about and had virtually no idea if they'd be able to return at all. How many people could say that? But while it was depressing, it was also encouraging. They've done it before and even succeeded, so they could do it again as well. Now it was just about finding the others.

"What are you two doing out here?" It was Zidane.

"Oh ah-" Hikari interrupted the red head before he could make a fool of himself, trying to lie.

"Just catching up. It's been a while since we've seen each other."

"Ah. Well in any case, it'll be nice to have you around, Hikari." he grinned, and she ignored his double meaning, "By the way, that bow is really cool, how you use magic to make arrows.

"It's nothing special really. I'm actually not very good with magic. I can't do anything like Vivi can. This bow was a gift from a friend though, it helps with actually making the arrows." she was a very good lier. "I don't exactly know how it works though, so don't ask."

"This the same person that gave you your glove, Koushirou?"

"Y-yeah. Same two people actually." he laughed, nervously. It was close enough to the truth.

"Alright, well I came to tell you guys that you should get some rest. There aren't many more hours before morning, and it's going to be a long journey out of this ravine."

"We're in a ravine?" Koushirou asked.

"Yeah, we're surrounded by mountains, and a very large river. Without any bridge or something to cross the river in, there's no way to cross that. With the forest petrified, it's not like we could make a boat, even if we had the proper tools. There is South Gate which could take us up the mountain, and would normally be the prime choice of getting out of here, but from what I heard, it's locked up tight, so there's no getting through that. That leaves just one option: Ice Cavern."

"Sounds... cold." Hikari remarked.

"Yeah. Anyway, get some rest, you two. You'll need as much energy as you can get. You never know what kind of monsters we'll find tomorrow."

They returned to under the rock; Steiner stood tall, like a proper soldier, keeping watch for other monsters. Princess Garnet, and Vivi snoozed quietly next to each other, and before Zidane could find his sleeping space next to the princess, Hikari stat down next to her, and Koushriou next to Hikari, leaving Zidane to lay grumpily outside of them. It wasn't too hard falling asleep on the ground, after all, it was something they were forced to deal with many times during their adventures in the digital world, but it still left an uncomfortable taste in their mouths, especially without knowing where Takeru or Taichi were.

Till Next Time...

* * *

**Phew... LONG chapter, at least it felt that way. I'm finding it difficult to fill travel time, if you can't tell. What I mean is, I feel awkward writing scenes that have the characters getting from point A to point B, and I feel like I'm trying to hard, or sounding like I'm rushing them there, or whatever. If you have any advice for me, feel free to review. Am I crazy and just being too harsh on myself? Or should I slow down the travel times and add more dialogue?**

**Why doesn't Blank point out that Hikari is a new face? With the chaos going on around, he didn't have the time to ask about where she came from, if anyone's wondering.**

**Did Hikari's appearance seem too spontaneous? If so, I'm sorry, but I did originally plan her arrival be in Evil Forest. I will hint that the other two are on the Mist Continent. So it's not like I'll be introducing Takeru in someplace like Conde Petie or Oeilvert... If you've played the game, you can go see that waterfall I mentioned, but it's completely random and I have no idea why they put it in the game. You can't do anything in that area, except look at the waterfall, so I thought I'd make it more important and give Hikari a somewhat traumatic entrance for Gaia. She's a strong girl though, so of course she wouldn't complain.**

**I'll be trying to give some other "why-did-they-put-this-here?" stuff some more importance, like other weird scenes and "a boss for the sake of having a boss" bosses.**

**How was my description of the Plant Brain? I hated repeating the words "vine" and "tentacle" but I really had no idea what other words to use.**

**Vivi doesn't have his staff! Yeah, Zidane has a belt for his daggers, Steiner has a sheath for his sword, but Vivi and Dagger don't really have any way to carry their weapons, and they never show them outside of battle, nor are they ones to fight with their weapons anyway. So I decided to omit those weapons, so there would be less "clutter". Quina won't be using her fork either, though I plan on interpreting Eiko's flute somehow.**

**Sorry this didn't come out Yesterday, I slept in, then had to do laundry, and it was too late for me to go to my favorite coffee house to write. And I just can't write at home, because it takes 8x longer to get work done as I'm too distracted. So I decided to just wait till today.**

**I'm expecting next chapter to come out sooner than next Tuesday.**

**Reviews are magical =)**


	3. Ice Cold

**Still not getting many reviews =/ Come on people, pretty please?**

**The only one I got was about the length of the last chapter. I'm sorry, I forgot the name of the commenter, but this chapter is a good 3000 words less than before. I really can't wait to get more into the story.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own le Digimon nor le Final Fantasy.**

* * *

Ice Cold

The light sound of footsteps was enough to wake Hikari from her sleep. The sun was up, and it was her first real day in this world. She had hoped the events that passed were only a nightmare that she would now wake up to, she was still their, sitting by an extinguished campfire, next to the group of people that she was lucky enough to run into in Evil Forest, especially considering it brought her to one of her friends. As she stirred from her own slumber, her hand touched at the digi-gear bow, the one Tailmon had become. It was a little saddening to see her like that, after all they'd been through.

She shifted her attention to the princess that they had rescued, as she stood before the petrified forest. Hikari walked over, next to the girl, who seemed to be heavily focusing from her hands, much like the boy, Vivi had done to cast his magic.

"It's no use..." she muttered, looking down sorrowfully.

"What's wrong?"

She looked over to Hikari, a little surprised.

"You are Miss Hikari, are you not?" she nodded, "Steiner explained to me your ordeal. I apologize for your experience. You are not hurt from your fall?"

"Luckily no. I was a little sore at first, but I'm feeling better, thanks." she decided to change the subject, "What were you trying to do?"

"I know of some White Magic, the healing arts. I was hoping I could undo the petrification, though I've never had to practice undoing stone. I regret to say I've had no success."

"It's probably better that way." the girls turned around to see Zidane standing their. "Evil Forest is better left petrified." he sounded upset when saying it, but he also couldn't deny it either.

"But your companion- "

"Blank." he answered, "I know, but I doubt he'd want to be revived if it meant the revival of this forest also." The princess bit her lip, not knowing what to say. "Garnet?"

"Yes?"

"Where were you planning to go after we kidnapped you?"

"To Lindblum. Would you be able to take me there?"

"If that's where you want to go, then that's where we'll go. What about you and Koushirou?" this time directing his question to the Chosen Child of Light.

"Well, we're trying to find out friends, wherever they've gone. I'm fine with going to Lindblum."

"Perfect. Well then, let's get going. We've got a lot of ground to cover."

"You know where to go?" asked the princess.

"Blank pushed me out of the way of one of the spiders. Before he was petrified, he toss this for me to catch." Zidane revealed a map of the continent, which he briefly unscrolled.

After scrolling the map back up, they walked back to the camp site. Vivi and Koushirou had just woken up, now stretching; Steiner was snoozing, having been awake all through the night. Hikari retrieved her bow, which folded up allowing her to strap it to her belt.

"We ready to go?" Koushirou asked.

"W-we head to South Gate." Steiner spoke, trying to wake.

"We can't go through South Gate." Zidane responded, apparently a statement shocking enough to fully awaken the knight.

"WHAT!"

"Yeah, South Gate's closed. We won't be able to cross through for a while."

"How do you expect us to get above the mist! You! This is your fault!" he spoke, getting in Zidane's face.

"How could it be my fault! And relax, there's another way to get above the mist. Ice Cavern."

"You expect the princess to traverse a dangerous, unknown location such as that!"

"Aldebert Steiner!" Garnet scolded. He looked at her like a sad puppy. "If it is the only way to the top of the mist, than that is the path we shall take."

You could tell he wanted to protest, but that he also knew he was wrong, as there was no other way up the mountains with South Gate closed.

"If it helps, Rusty. The easiest way to find Ice Cavern is to follow the mountains. If we do that we should pass South Gate, and if I'm wrong, and it's not closed, than we'll pass that way."

He huffed, and moved forward, with everyone else right behind. The fields wide and open, though it was hard to see through the dense mist surrounding the area. It was rather curious how the others had talked about this mist, both Chosen Children thought so. Steiner fell back to the rear of the group, to watch for monsters and to keep his eye on the blond thief who led the group as they hugged the mountain range.

With Hikari and Garnet...

"So what are your friends like?" asked the princess.

"Well, the first is actually my brother, Taichi. He's got a head of really messy, brown hair. You couldn't miss him in a crowd. The other is less loud, Takeru, he really a sweet guy. He's blond, like Zidane, but almost always wears a hat."

"You say he is sweet. Would he happen to be your..."

"No, it's nothing like that." she sighed, "Seriously, I don't know why everyone thinks we're together."

"Seriously..?" muttered the princess.

"Let's change the subject." Hikari blurted. "What's this about you wanting to be kidnapped?"

"Well, if you must know. I want to speak with my uncle."

"Your uncle lives in Lindblum? If you're royalty, than he is as well?"

"Yes, my uncle, Cid, is the Reagent of Lindblum. I wanted to see him and discuss..." her eyes looked distant, "family matters. Rather personal actually, I am sure you understand."

"I see. Steiner seems to think we're taking you to Alexandria. I'm assuming that's where you guys came from before you crash landed in Evil Forest."

"Correct. Steiner is a tad protective I suppose. I shan't discuss my ordeal with him. But I just hope Zidane is able to take us to Lindblum without a struggle from him. I must apologize to Steiner after, but I cannot do this with him trying to return me to Alexandria."

"Zidane seems sly enough to solve your problem."

"Yes, he is a thief after all." she said with a bit of distaste in her tone, "though he is quite the actor."

With Koushirou and Vivi...

"This valley seems really nice. It's too bad all this mist is blocking so much sunlight. And it makes the plains look almost like a cemetery."

"Yeah, the mist is very dense below the mountains. That's why monsters are much more dangerous here. Not many people come down here for anything. There aren't any towns or cities."

"You know a lot about the geography here. Have you been down here before?"

"No, but I read books about the mist, and my grandpa was the one that taught me about mist, and how it spawns the monsters. He said that almost all the towns and cities on our continent are on the plateaus because it's harder to keep the people safe in a place with a lot of mist. Besides, I doubt a lot of people would want to live where it's always misty."

_So... that's what the mist does... It spawns monsters. But how? And why? What is this "mist"? Maybe our being here has something to do with this. Perhaps those Evil Digimon want the mist somehow._

"What are you thinking about?"

"Oh, sorry, Vivi. I was just thinking about the mist and the monsters. I find them rather strange you see, I can't help but get curious. One of my bad habits you might say."

"Mist is pretty strange, but it's what powers airships too, remember?"

"Y-yeah..." _So it's what enables those large ships to fly as well... fascinating... _"Funny how something like the Mist really carves the world's society."

"I didn't think of it like that. You're really smart Koushirou."

"Thanks, Vivi. You are too."

"May I present to everyone," Zidane spoke up, "South Gate."

The massive, mechanical gate was sealed shut, just as Zidane had said earlier. Smoke was rising off in the distance, with flags waving into the misty air. Faint sounds of clashing swords and metal was echoing from beyond the walls.

"A battle?" wondered the princess, "And those are Alexandrian flags."

"What in the world is going on!" Steiner demanded.

"Quit it, Rusty. Isn't it obvious?"

The knight glared at Zidane, "If you think you can bad mouth the Queen-"

"Steiner, please..." Garnet spoke, asking for him to stop, "I know what is happening. We must hurry out of this valley."

She walked off, without time for anyone to respond. Zidane muttered a "Yes, Ma'm," in a bit of a surprised tone, and the group wondered from South Gate, continuing to hug the mountain edge.

The walk towards Ice Cavern was a bit more dangerous, as the group was attacked a couple times, first by Mus, dark-furred rodents with surprisingly sharp claws, as Koushirou noticed when one lunged at him. It was by reflex that he punched with his glove and electrocuted the vicious squirrel and kept his face intact. Zidane effortlessly slashed through two, and Steiner had no problems cleaving the last in half with his large sword.

The pythons were a bit more surprising, surrounding the group and attacking from all sides. Vivi defended himself with spells of thunder, that crashed down onto a few snakes all at once, frying them. Zidane took care of one, and Hikari shot through another, but was bitten by the last, in which Steiner dealt with cold steel. The bite was somewhat painful, but with the Princess Garnet's magical aid, the poison was quickly cured and the wound was reduced to nothing.

It was then that the group reached the opening to Ice Cavern. The inside was full of a deep blue and white, with cold mist pouring out like an air conditioning unit.

"So this is Ice Cavern." Garnet said, walking in.

"Princess wait for me! You need your royal escort." she ignored the knight and knelt before a strange flower.

"It's absolutely beautiful! Better than anything I've read in books."

"Don't touch anything! You don't know what it is!"

"The wind that blows through at the top of the cavern channels all the way down here, creating snow and ice. That's what my grandpa told me."

"Bravo, Master Vivi! Your Grandfather must be quite the scholar."

"He died." no one said a word, "Don't worry, I'm not upset."

"Well," Zidane spoke, breaking the quiet, "It's definitely colder than I thought it would be." while no one noticed, the blond gathered some snow into his hand and balled it up, before lightly tossing it at the perplexed princess.

"Ahh!"

"You scoundrel!" Steiner shouted.

"What on Gaia was that for!" she said, placing her fists on her hips.

"Relax, it was a snowball. You've never played in the snow before?"

"No, why? Is this what common people do! Throw snow at one another?" she spoke angrily.

Koushirou giggled, which got everyone's attention. "It's called a snowball fight. It's supposed to be fun."

"Yeah," Hikari joined in, "Like this..." she hurled a snowball at Zidane, and hit him in on the side of his head.

"Hey! You didn't have to hit me in my ear!"

"Well _you _stuck me on the back of my head!" Garnet proclaimed, balling up her own snowball and smacking him in the face with it.

"Ouch! Now you're just being spiteful!"

"Well that's what you get for-ahh!" Garnet got hit with another snowball, though only on her arm. "You too, Vivi!"

The boy laughed before getting hit in the shoulder from Koushirou, who felt a tap on his shoulder from Hikari, who then slammed a pile of snow in his face when he turned his head. Hikari was then hit from the side by none other than Garnet, who's upset face now had an uncharacteristic grin.

"That's the spirit, Princess now you're-" Zidane was hit in the face with a snowball from Vivi before he could finish.

The little mage was now laughing hysterically, really enjoying himself.

"Princess, while I can see you are having _fun_. I must interject that this is a dangerous place and our main priority should be reaching the top of this cavern!"

"Alright, Steiner, I understand. You are right."

"Thank you," he turned to Garnet, "I am glad to hear-" she threw a snowball at his face.

Steiner became silent as the rest of the group laughed joyously. For the next few minutes or so, their laughing continued as they walked up the slopes inside the cavern, with only Steiner staying silent, as he led them through the passages. Mist blew like ice, and everyone was shivering; Steiner maintained his momentum, though held his arms close to his body and bit his lip to endure the cold, but the farther they progressed, the colder it got. There was a path of ice across a large gap from the group that had numerous blue creatures with large tusks walking in the opposite direction.

"Monsters?" Koushirou asked.

"There's so many of them." Garnet added.

"Wyerds." Vivi answered, "Now I remember. Grandpa said Wyerds mainly live in the cavern. The mist starts at the top, and blows aaalllll the way down to the bottom where we came in. These monsters are born from the wind at the top of the cavern, and follow the blowing mist all the way to the bottom where they die. That's all they do in their life, travel from one end of the cavern to the other."

"How tragic..." Garnet spoke, sounding rather solemn.

"They're just monsters." Zidane tried to add.

"I suppose... It just sounds very sad to spend your life following the wind, only to die when you reach the end."

"Princess..." Steiner muttered.

"Let us carry on. We need to get out of here, do we not?"

She pressed forward, quietly, the others not far behind. The mist was only getting colder the father they traveled, and the slippery ice roads started becoming a problem, especially when Steiner slipped and slid across the walkway. At the end of the icy roads came a long, open tunnel where the blowing mist was the strongest of the entire cavern. Everyone was shivering, rubbing their arms for warmth, but the cold was so strong. Vivi was breathing onto his gloved hands, trying to get a little extra warmth; before he realized he he walked off a ledge and fell unconscious into the snow.

"Vivi?" Koushirou asked.

"Master Vivi, we must hurry out of this cavern. You can rest later!" Steiner called, looking over the ledge.

As he turned around, his eyes grew tired, and he fell backwards off the edge as well. He was out cold.

"Oh Rusty... Now's no time to sleep!" Zidane leapt off the edge, and tried to wake the sleeping knight and mage.

Hikari knelt over the edge to make sure the were alright as well, but despite the thief kicking at Steiner's armor, there was no response except for snoring. "Oh dear. There's no way we'll be able to carry him out of there. If it were just Vivi it would be no problem. What should we do?" she turned to the others behind her, only to find they had fallen asleep as well.

"Not you guys too!" Zidane shouted as he climbed out of the ditch.

"I... I think I'm..." Hikari couldn't finish before falling asleep herself.

"No! Crap... Now I'm feeling..." and with that, everyone had fallen asleep...

* * *

"Hikari!" it was Tailmon calling. "Hikari, wake up!"

"Tail...mon?"

"Hikari, you can't let this beat you!" she shook her partner as hard as she could, "Please, wake up!"

Tailmon's voice continued to echo in the back of Hikari's mind.

* * *

_*...Chime...*_

"W-wha...?"

_*...Chime...*_

"Tail...mon?" Hikari's vision came back to her, and she could see the snow she'd been laying on, but for how long? Her body felt cold from the snow and the wind, but that coldness seemed to be so numb now.

"Hikari?" It was Zidane calling her.

They were the only two standing up, the others remained knocked out. With the wind blowing so cold, Hikari wondered how they couldn't feel it.

_*...Chime...*_

"What is that noise?" Zidane asked.

"Sounds like... a bell?"

_*...Chime...*_

"It's coming from that direction." she said, pointing farther up the cavern.

Just past the tunnel where the rest of the group remained asleep, as a large, frozen waterfall with mist pouring out as cold as it would get. Standing above the ice was a hunched over mage with blue wings extending from his back.

"Why didn't you fall asleep?" his voice was somewhat raspy yet relaxing, almost wanted them to fall back asleep. "You both should be dead by now."

"So you're the one who's making this storm and making us fall asleep!" Hikari spoke.

"Hmph... Ice Giant, Sea lion! Come before me!"

Out of the frozen waterfall burst what was certainly a large sea lion, being almost the size of the waterfall. It had massive wings bladed with ice and very sharp tusks reaching down its chest. Almost immediately, it swung its wings, flinging magic in the form of ice shards at the two, who both instinctively leapt out of the way just in time.

"Why are you attacking us!" Hikari tried to yell, but the mage gave no response.

Zidane unsheathed his daggers and charged up to the sea lion, swiping at the body and cutting out chucks of it. The body seemed to be made completely of ice, a golem? Hikari readied her bow and shot through one of the blades of the wing, causing more harm, though the ice soon seemed to regenerate itself. Both kept trying to attack, but every time they cut off a piece of ice, it just grew back. The tides turned when it started casting blizzard magic at Zidane and Hikari angrily. Icicles were flying all over, and dodging them was becoming a burden, Hikari even felt her arm or leg get grazed by the ice several times.

"Why isn't it affected by out attacks!" Zidane shouted in frustration.

There had to be something regenerating this monster's ice. The Chosen Child of Light looked around for the mage. Why wasn't he attacking? He stayed high above the frozen pathway up the cavern, far out of their reach, but she could see his face clear enough, and he had the same look of concentration that Vivi had when he was casting spells.

"Of course! Zidane! That man is using ice magic to repair the monster whenever we hurt it! I have an idea, distract the sea lion!"

"Whatever you say... Hey ugly!"

Zidane threw a dagger towards the sea lion's head, the dagger going through the forehead of the monster, though it remained unfazed due to the mage's blizzard spells. Hikari was given enough time to fire an arrow at the mage himself, piercing through his chest.

"Urgh! Sea... Lion... Kill the... for me..." without the constant casting of ice magic, the wind stopped blowing, and the mage fell forward and crashed threw the ice lake below, taking the sea lion down into the water as well.

As it cried out, water burst from the frozen lake, and flew at Hikari and Zidane in an unavoidable wave of cold. Just like that they were both washed into the frozen whirlpool flying around the waterfall room.

_Hikari... _Tailmon's voice echoed in her mind.

_I can't..._

_Hikari!_

_I have to..._

_HIKARI!_

"_Aahhhhhh!_" Hikari's body encased in light. Her clothes turned to a light shade of yellow, and her body turned into a light pink. This feeling, it wasn't Tailmon's power, instead it felt like Angewomon's. She stopped in the torrent of ice water, readying her bow, and an arrow formed, stronger than anything she'd used thus far. She fired that arrow, and it pierced right though the sea lion as it cried out. The icy water crashed down, back into the lake as the ice monster's body crumbled into chunks of ice now splashing into the water below. Hikari hovered down with Zidane in her arms, his consciousness returning. When she touched down, the light of her body faded, revealing the same Hikari as before.

"So you tranced as well." Zidane spoke, coughing up some water.

"Is that what it's called?" she set him down on his feet.

"Before, when the princess was captured by the plant monster, and we fought it, it grabbed me and started draining my energy. When I thought I was about to die, I did the same thing, and broke free."

"Trance..."

"Guys?" it was Koushirou who spoke.

Standing with him were the others as well, now all awake and looking at the two with curiosity.

"What happened here?" asked Garnet.

"Nothing." Zidane answered, before Hikari had a chance to respond. "The storm stopped, and it's gotten a little warmer.

"Nothing? Zidane you're drenched. Please tell me you did not try to take a bath in that lake?"

"I just fell in is all."

"Zidane! You could get very sick from that!" Koushirou scolded, "Vivi, can you use some magic to warm him up?"

"I'll try." the mage walked up to a protesting Zidane, but nevertheless, he started using his fire magic to warm and dry the blond at least a little.

Hikari didn't say anything, as she assumed Zidane figured it would be best not to worry the others now that he was dealt with. Steiner ushered them to move forward while Vivi warmed up Zidane, as to get out of the cold cavern once and for all. At the very top was a cliff overlooking the fields below. For the first time in hours, they had seen sunlight, at it was refreshingly warm.

"Ah, it is marvelous to be out in the sunshine again." spoke the princess.

"Look down there," Hikari pointed, "looks like a town."

"Ah, that must be Dali." Zidane answered. "It's a small farming town. Pretty cozy place. Maybe we should head there for the night. It wont be much longer before the sun goes down, and it will take a while to walk that far."

"I never imagined climbing that cavern would take us so long. Perhaps it is best to rest there for the evening."

"I agree, we should go as soon as possible. Last thing I want it to be out and about with the monsters at night." Koushirou spoke.

Before the group could walk down the cliff, Zidane stopped everyone, "Wait! Princess, you can't just waltz right into town. People are looking for you, and we're still in Alexandrian territory. What you need is an alias."

"An alias?"

"You heathen! How dare you propose such a thing!" Steiner spoke, pushing Zidane and causing him to drop his weapon, of which Garnet picked up.

"Steiner, Zidane is right. I should change my name while we are in town. We do not want to draw unwanted attention, no?" Steiner pouted, but said nothing, "Zidane, what is this called?"

"That? It's called a Dagger. Longer swords are called short swords which are easy to use, and even bigger than that are broadswords like Rusty-"

"That is enough." he hung his head in shame, "From this point on you shall address me as 'Dagger' if you please."

The Chosen Children looked at one another in a bit of confusion.

"Ah... Sure! It's a great name." Zidane answered, lying a bit.

"Princess! You cannot be serious!"

"Of course I am serious, Steiner."

"Well, next we should work on how you speak. No offense, but you talk to formally, it's a dead giveaway."

"I think I understand."

"That's all wrong! You should just say, 'I get it'."

"I get it? I get it."

"Right!"

"Princess, please!" Steiner complained.

Dagger looked to Hikari, who gave a questionable look. "Steiner, seriously!"

The boys, excluding Steiner, all stifled a laugh, whereas the Knight hung his head in defeat.

"Alrighty everyone!" she tried, "Shall we... er... let's mozy!"

"Mozy?" Zidane asked, "Dagger... where did you learn that word?"

"I read it in a book."

"Well we'll work on that..."

The group laughed again, much to Dagger's chagrin, but they carried on down the cliff before they wasted anymore time. The travel to the small village of Dali was much more peaceful and cheerful. With the mist much less dense on top of the mountains, there were no monsters in sight. Some roamed around, but there were much fewer than at the bottom where mus and pythons wondered. And with a less dense mist to see through, the sunlight made the atmosphere feel more like day. Dagger began practicing her common speech right away with Hikari.

"So instead of 'I apologize,' just 'sorry' is alright?"

"Exactly."

"And 'Exactly' means that something is correct. I think I... I get it."

By the time the group came within the town limits, the sun had already set, and the sky was dark. Zidane let the group to a small building labeled "Inn" Inside was another customer, surprising to everyone. He had a shaggy bush of brown hair and was on his knees, begging the innkeeper.

"Please, I don't have money, but I really need a place to stay!"

"Taichi!"

Till Next Time...

* * *

**Woo! Another Chapter finished. Who likes the background info added about the Wyerds? In-game... if you walk into blowing mist, you trigger a fight the the Wyerds who attack you and say things like "The wind lays my path!" and "Get out of my way!" which is kind of strange for monsters to be talking, but they do. I'm surprised Square didn't provide some information about them in the game itself, maybe why they follow the wind the way they do.**

**This chapter isn't as big as the last, thank goodness. So now we may have found another Chosen Child! But what's he doing in Dali? And what lies to come?**

**Next chapter, "Active Time Events!" if you remember those. I'll explain more next chapter.**

**Every time you review, an endangered species is saved! =)**


	4. Curious Village

**Yes, there WAS a moogle in Ice Cavern, but I'm trying to make the moogles less... I dunno, I can't imagine spending my life, sitting in a freezing cavern alone, or in front of creepy-ass Oeilvert. So There won't be moogles hanging out in random places like that since they aren't needed to save anyone's game in this story =p.**

**This chapter is going to be a bit shorter than the others, thankfully.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Digimon, Don't own Final Fantasy. Why would I be writing fanfiction if I did?**

* * *

Curious Village

As sunlight poured through the small windows on the ceiling of the small room, the eyes of the red-headed Chosen Child began to open and take in the events that happened just last night. Upon arriving in the town of Dali and walking into the Inn, they found themselves facing none other than Taichi on his knee's begging the innkeeper for a free night's stay.

* * *

"Taichi!" both Koushirou and Hikari simultaneously exclaimed.

"Koushirou! Hikari!"

Brother and sister immediately ran together for an embrace. Koushirou walked up to them, though felt a bit awkward waiting for them to break from their hug. _Should I hug him? Would that be weird? _Before Koushirou could come to a decision, Taichi answered for him by squeezing the living daylights out of the red head.

"UGH! Nice... To see you... too... Taichi... Taichi! Can't breath!"

"Oh, sorry about that." he laughed, scratching the back of his head. "You have no idea how worried I've been for you guys. Where have you been?"

"Well you see..."

"Hey guys, I hate to break up your reunion..." Zidane interrupted, "But it's late, and I think we should really get some rest, especially after barely getting any sleep last night. Just look at Rusty."

Sure enough, the knight was struggling to keep his eyes open. That was right, Steiner hadn't slept last night, he was too busy keeping watch for monsters. Come to think of it, they haven't even eaten yet, and his stomach agreed.

"Zidane, perhaps we should eat first?" Dagger said, hearing the rumbling stomach. Zidane coughed at her language, "Oh, right. _Maybe_ we should eat first?" she then leaned to his ear, "That sound better?"

He gave the thumbs up at her speech, "I'm hungry too, but the only place to get food in this town is a bar at night, the last time I checked. And everyone here but Steiner couldn't get in anyway. Let's just wait for the morning."

"Well I really need a place to sleep but I don't have any money..." Taichi pouted.

"We've got plenty of gil." Zidane answered.

"Thank you... I didn't get your name."

"It's Zidane Tribal. The little guy is Vivi," on cue he waved, "Rusty over there is Aldebert Steiner," he snored a bit, "And this is... Dagger."

"A pl... Ahem... nice to meet you."

"You too?" he laughed, "I'm Yagami, Taichi."

"He's my brother," Hikari added, "and these are some friends we made through some... extenuating circumstances."

"You too, huh?"

"I would really love to talk about this more, but it's getting late. Why don't we save this conversation for tomorrow?" Koushirou proposed.

"I agree," Dagger added, "We could all use some rest. Preferably before Steiner falls over." she giggled.

"Good idea," Zidane walked over to the counter, "Seven for..." the man seemed perplexed, and when Zidane turned to look at what, he had been staring to where Dagger, Hikari and Vivi were standing. "Pst... I know the girls are cute, but you should really stop staring."

"Oh! I wasn't..! Ah, it will be 350 gil. Oh, but we only have four beds..."

"We'll think of something."

Zidane handed the man the gil, while he pointed to the room.

"Zidane..." Dagger spoke up, "Where will I be staying?"

"Princess..." he said in a hushed tone, "These small-town villages don't have private rooms for royalty."

"But I mustn't..."

At this point Steiner had woken up a little and was giving Zidane that look that said, "I'm about to yell at you again."

Hikari interrupted before he could speak, "You can share with me, it will be like having a slumber party."

"Slumber party?"

"Only a little, but we can have a real slumber party once we get out of this mess. I'll teach you all about it." Hikari locked arms with Dagger and walked her towards the far bed.

"Me and Koushirou can bunk together." Taichi proposed.

"We can?" the red head said, somewhat dumbfounded.

"Duh, we used to do it all the time when we were younger, so it would be no problem. I doubt any of these guys want to share a bed with a guy they just met anyway."

"I guess that means it's you and me, Vivi."

After the group moved into to room, Steiner passed out within moments after removing his armor, Vivi was only a few minutes after that, and Zidane right after that. Koushirou could hear an occasional giggle from the girls, knowing they were probably talking about Dagger's speech progression, which left him laying awkwardly next to his secret crush.

"I'm really glad I found you." Taichi whispered.

"You are?"

"After getting here and being attacked by those creatures, I feared the worst for you guys. I figured you would get a digi-gear also. Agumon turned into my sword and shield, but I wasn't sure how you three would hold up, I got attacked by some massive bugs and barely made it out alive."

"I could talk all night about what we went through in Evil Forest. But I think we should get some sleep."

Koushirou wanted to talk about his feelings, but something about having to share a bed made him want to wait. Last thing he wanted to potentially creep out the guy he was sharing a bed with.

"You're right. We'll have plenty of time to talk about tomorrow. I just hope we can find Takeru soon. No telling how he's holding up."

Koushirou responded with a nod before they said their goodnights and turned away from each other. It was a while before he could fall asleep.

* * *

Now, sitting up in the bed, Koushirou noticed how everyone else had already woken up and left, all except for Zidane who was still snoozing away. Even Taichi was up and out of bed by now, which made the red head wonder what time it was. He stood and slipped into his shoes before taking some of the gil out of the bag Zidane had left on the counter; he was off to find some food.

**A**ctive **T**ime **E**vent...

Like Brother Like Sister

Taichi and Hikari sat together at the local restaurant while Steiner helped the worker clean up. Apparently the adults were away, leaving the bar's daughter to tend to the shop selling medicine and lunch food.

"So what happened with you?" Taichi asked.

"Well, when I arrived here, I was in the middle of nowhere outside a city called Alexandria and got attacked by monsters as well. I ended up in a river where I fell down a waterfall into a lake inside Evil Forest."

"You mentioned Evil Forest before, what is that?"

"It was a living forest full of monsters. Dagger was captured, and the others went searching for her. It was just by luck that we ran into each other. Koushirou was already with them. After we rescued her, and killed the big monster at the heart of the forest, it fought hard to try and keep us there, but we did escape, and the forest petrified itself. After that we had to climb out of the ravine down the mountains through a place called Ice Cavern, and that's when we made it here."

"Sounds like a rough time, I'm really just glad you're safe, Hikari."

"Likewise. What happened with you?"

"I arrived at night outside a city called Treno, and got attacked by giant bugs. Luckily, I had Agumon as digi-gear to protect myself." he showed off the buckler and short sword around his waist, "Inside the city I tried to find any of you, hoping you were close by, but I couldn't find anyone. I was starving and tired, but without money, I had nowhere to go. I found a shop run by this really weird owl man that gave me a place to rest and some food. I was lucky to find him in that big city."

"So how did you end up in Dali."

"Well, that man, Dr. Tot I think it was, said if I wanted gil, he heard that the people in this town were working hard for Alexandrian cargo, and needed workers to help run the town during the day. He said if I wanted to earn some gil, it would be easier to get a job than in Treno. This was all the morning after, and did I mention that for some reason, it's always dark in Treno? I woke up and the sky was just as dark as the night before."

"Strange, though I'm not sure anything about this world would surprise me after escaping evil forest. So Dr. Tot couldn't hire you?"

"Someone else was already working there. He couldn't afford me." Taichi frowned, "But he gave me a pass to get through the gates on the way here, and said to look for a job, but when I got here, it was night again, and I mean, real night. So I came here hoping to get some sleep, and you know the rest."

Always Friends

"Vivi?" Koushirou spoke, approaching the mage.

Vivi was standing over by the windmill, watching the blades spin and listening to the gears turn.

"Oh hello, Koushirou."

The two stood in silence near the mill, and Koushirou had to admit how peaceful it was. Through everything they had been through up till now, it was comfortable standing here with Vivi.

"We've been through a lot in the last two days."

"Yeah... Kinda scary."

"I think so too, but I'm glad you were there with us, Vivi."

"You are?"

"Well, you're a good friend to me now, and your magic has really helped us. I'm not sure we would've made it out of Evil Forest without it. You're a really brave kid, also?"

"Me? I don't feel very brave. If anyone is brave, it's been you and the others."

"True, we're all pretty brave for facing the dangers we've faced, but don't count yourself out. Even though you may have been afraid, you overcame that and fought back with amazing power."

"Aww..." Vivi held his hands behind his back bashfully and kicked up some dirt.

"I'm glad I get to call you a friend, Vivi." the red head smiled.

"I'm glad we're friends too."

"Vivi! Koushirou!" Zidane called out.

"Oh, hey Zidane!" Vivi said.

"What are you guys doing?"

"Just talking and listening to the windmill."

"Watching for chocobos?"

"What's a chocobo?" Vivi asked.

"Large yellow birds, usually helped with the farm in town. Last I remember they kept one around here."

"We haven't seen any." Koushirou spoke.

"Strange... Well I'm going to go look for Dagger and see how she's doing."

"Alright, I'm going to look for Taichi. I've been hoping to catch up with him after all that we went through. What about you, Vivi?"

"I think I'll stay here and watch the windmill."

"Alright, just head back to the inn when you're done, we should talk about where to go from here when we're all together." Zidane said, before waving and heading off.

Koushirou waved as well and left for the bar.

"Kweh!"

"Chocobo!" Vivi exclaimed.

Dagger Tries

_So this is a farm... _thought the princess, as she walked into a small farm of corn and tomatoes. _I hope we didn't cause too much trouble back in Alexandria... Mother really didn't have to fire at the ship. Maybe if I hadn't drawn so much attention... Oh I hope there weren't many injured. People could've died, like in Evil Forest..._

"You're in my way, Kiddo." spoke an old lady, passing through.

"Oh, my ap- I mean I'm sorry."

"You're a strange girl."

"What exactly are you doing here?"

"Tendin' to the crops, killin' the bugs."

"Hey, Dagger."

"Oh, Hikari! I was just talking with this lady. So, why are you killing the bugs?"

"'Cause if I don't, they'll eat the crops." one of the bugs hopped off, it was rather large and looked like the cross between a cockroach and a ladybug. "Watch it." It hopped right over to Dagger, who caught it in her hand.

"An oglop?"

"Weird looking bug if you ask me." Hikari muttered.

"You're a strange one," spoke the old woman, "Most girls your age can't stand the sight of oglops."

"Oh I just haven't seen very many..." Dagger whispered. _Maybe it's best if I act scarred of it. Alright... 1... 2... 3... _"AHHHH!" she screamed while throwing the oglop in the air. Hikari laughed.

Awkward

Before Hikari left the bar, Koushirou had walked in while Steiner conversed with the girl behind the counter, though he left shortly after. Koushirou had ordered some food from the small selection, picking a tomato sandwich. Hikari left in search of Dagger, and the red head sat at the table where Taichi was.

"Hikari told me all about the trouble you guys have been through on your way here. I'm glad to know you made it out safe."

"Yeah, it's been quite a struggle getting this far. Now we just have to find Takeru."

"I know, I just hope he's alright too."

"I'm sure he will be. I'll bet you anything that Patamon became a digi-gear for him as well."

"Speaking of digi-gears, yours is pretty cool." Taichi pointed to the glove.

"You think? It maintain's Tentomon's electrical attacks. That discharge makes up for what I lack in power."

"That makes sense, I found out how to make Agumon's sword catch on fire, like the fire attacks he has."

"That's neat." Koushirou gulped, wanting to make his confession as soon as he could. "So... Taichi... I ah, just wanted to say... After all this danger we've been through, and even the adventures we had in the digital world... I just want to say that I really... care about you."

"I care about you too, Koushirou. You're the best friend I have." he gave his goofy smile, and the red head blushed, realizing that the point flew completely over Taichi's head.

From behind them, he heard a light giggle from the girl at the counter, probably her realizing what Koushirou meant and how he got the wrong response he was looking for. _Damn it, Taichi, why do you have to be such an idiot some times?_

"Hey, we should probably get going and see if the others are back at the inn."

Before Koushirou could respond, the brunet already stood and walked out the front door. Before Koushirou could follow, the girl commented, "He's pretty dense, isn't he." and giggled again. Koushirou could only respond with an embarrassed laugh.

Awkward...

Dagger Tries Harder

The girls walked into the the shop just across the road from the Inn, where a young woman about Hikari's age sat behind a counter in the small quarters of the building.

"Welcome! Can I help y'all?"

"Hello, actually I was wondering if we could talk for a bit." Dagger answered.

"We're just visiting and would like to hear about the village." followed Hikari.

"Hey!" yelled a boy charging into the store.

"Yacha! I'm with a customer!" scolded the girl.

"Oh, don't mind us." Dagger replied. "We'll browse while you talk."

"Thank's lady!" he crawled under the counter, "As I was sayin'..."

"Maybe I can learn to speech better by listening to them," Dagger whispered to Hikari.

"Sure, I'll check out some of the clothes they have."

"...And when he caught the oglops, he tried to let 'em loose around the girls to freak them out. But instead they just got angry and started yellin' at him..."

"Peekaboo!" Zidane shouted, only inches from Dagger's ear, causing her to scream and him to laugh. Everyone in the store now starred at them.

"Zidane!" she remembered what the kid was talking about with the shopkeeper, "Are you trying to freak me out!"

"Sorry, Dagger." he laughed.

The two behind the counter carried on their conversation.

"Where'd you learn to say that?" Zidane whispered.

"Does that sound better?"

"You're doing really good actually. So what are you ladies up to?"

"I was looking at some of the clothes here." she picked out a grey, cotton cap with a small white feather on the side attached with a pink gem. It was clear the stone was just an ore, but it was cute enough; Hikari wished she had it back in Ice Cavern to keep her ears warm. "What do you think of this hat?"

"It might be a good idea to conserve gil, girls." Zidane tried to reason. "Nonsense, we have plenty, and if you want to be paid back, I'll ask uncle Cid when we arrive in Lindblum." Dagger mentioned.

"I'm not going to win this argument, am I..." Zidane muttered, noting he was talking to a princess about shopping.

"In that case, you should get one too, Dagger."

"Oh, I'm really not much of a hat person..." she tried to fight.

"Just try it on," Hikari imposed, picking one out with an orange ore to match her outfit, much to the princess' chagrin.

"Perhaps something more like..." She picked out a tan hat made of leather, this one had a brim instead of covering the ears.

"That looks mighty lovely on you, Miss." said the shopkeeper. The boy had apparently left while the group checked out hats.

"You think?" smiled Dagger.

"It might actually be a good idea to get you some clothes from here." he motioned to the shirt rack and picked out a purple silk jacket. "How about this too?"

"Zidane... Purple and orange?"

"What?"

"How about the white one, instead?"

"Whatever, we should probably get a bag to carry this stuff... and it will give us some room to carry medicine too." he said, picking out a leather carrying bag.

"Good idea." Hikari mentioned.

"Alright, the two hats, the shirt, and the bag please." Zidane said, placing the items on the counter.

"It'll be 850 gil."

Zidane handed the girl the money and packed the items into the bag. "I'm going to get some medicine, why don't you ladies head back to the inn where we can talk about where to go next. Vivi and the others should be back by now."

* * *

Back at the Inn, both girls walked in, almost at the same time as the boys, Koushirou and Taichi. Neither Vivi or Steiner seemed to be back yet.

"Hey girls," Taichi spoke.

"Hey, where are Vivi and Steiner?" Hikari asked.

"Not sure, I haven't seen Vivi since earlier this morning."

"And the last I saw of Steiner was when he left that bar. What about Zidane?"

"He's went to buy some medicine before we leave."

"I'm back!" called the blond thief. "Where's Vivi?"

"We're not sure. I don't think anyone's seen him or Steiner since earlier." Dagger answered.

"I'm not too worried about Rusty. Getting to Lindblum might even be easier if we leave him behind."

"Zidane!" Dagger scolded.

"I'm a little worried..." Koushirou interrupted, "He wasn't by the windmill when we came back; I figured he'd be waiting here." everyone gave a look of uncertainty, "I think we should go looking for him."

"Something is very strange about this village..." Zidane started, "I haven't seen any adults except the inn keeper."

"Now that you mention it..." Taichi added, "The girl at the bar was barely older than nine or ten."

"And the girl at the store was my age."

"There was that woman tending to the farm... but that's such a small farm. I thought for sure it would be larger."

"I noticed that too." Zidane said, now thinking intently on the subject. "I've been here before, and the farm was so much larger. Why would they get rid of it?"

"I think we've done enough waiting. We should look for Vivi, you said he was at the windmill last?" Dagger asked.

"That's right."

"Then let's search there."

* * *

"Vivi was standing here the last I saw him." Koushirou said, standing near the the empty corral where Zidane had mentioned there would be a chocobo

"Hold on..." Hikari spoke up, "Do you guys hear that?"

Everyone became silent, listening to the sounds around them. Mostly the only sound was the turning of the windmill blades, but there was a faint sound of sniffling.

"It's coming from over here..." Taichi said, walking to the corner of the corral and the windmill building. He knelt down and that's when he noticed a tube sticking out of the ground.

"Vivi!" Koushirou called through it.

"Koushirou?" The mage answered back.

"Where are you!"

"I don't know, they told me to wait here. Koushirou, I'm scared."

"Don't worry, we'll find you!"

"He's underground?" Dagger questioned.

"There must be a basement or something below us, let's check inside the windmill."

Inside there was a large contraption, turning the mill and a door surrounded by chocobo feed leading out to the empty corral. On the other side of the room was a large metal hatch.

"That's not suspicious..." Zidane remarked, opening the hatch. "Let's be careful down there."

Everyone nodded in agreement, and one by one they climbed down a long ladder into a cave-like basement area. It was a long hallway poorly lit by candlelight. Cautiously, the group walked through the hallway, not sure of what to expect. Ahead was a small hut next to an underground corral where a large yellow bird was relaxing, pecking at its underwing.

"So that's where the chocobo is." Whispered Zidane, "Quick hide!" he said, ushering the others behind a large barrel.

From inside the shelter, a few adults walked out with Vivi. When he stopped, they pushed him forward and was escorted further down the tunnel. Dagger had to pull Zidane by his collar to prevent him from attacking them.

"Zidane, wait." She whispered. "Let's not cause a scene, at least not yet."

"Fine, but if they put him in danger, I'm going to do something."

"Me too." Koushirou added, gripping his fist.

"That's fine, but that insignia, on the barrel." she pointed to a green circle with a star shape in the middle, "I've see that before at the castle. Something is definitely not right here."

"I'm not really sure what this is about," Taichi interrupted,"but shouldn't we rescue Vivi first?"

"Right, sorry." Dagger bit her lip.

The group passed the underground corral as well as several empty coffin-shaped boxes, driving even more curiosity in the princess as to what was going on here. At the end of the pathway seemed to be a massive machine producing large egg-like things.

"What are those things?" Taichi asked.

"They can't be... eggs?" Zidane added.

"Guys!" Hikari called out, pointing to one of the coffins.

Upon listening closely, they could hear crying from the inside.

"Vivi!" Shouted Koushirou, immediately prying open the wooden structure.

"They shoved you in that coffin! That's horrible!"

"They told me to stay in their and shut up." He was wiping his face and crying.

While Koushirou and Dagger comforted the mage, Zidane continued to check out the room, and around the machine distributing eggs. Behind the mechanism was a large set of doors where a small amount of smoke seemed to seethe out from the cracks underneath.

"Wait... this isn't smoke... it's mist!"

"You mean the mist that creates monsters!" Hikari exclaimed.

Slowly, he opened the door, when several blue creatures flew out at high speed. They looked like small ovals with angry faces; they didn't have wings. Small fireballs and iceballs were fired from their hands, magic. Hikari responded by unfolding her bow and firing light arrows, only one of which connected with the moving targets. Zidane had his daggers out while Taichi unsheathed his sword and bashed one of the monsters with his shield before slicing through it with his sword. Zidane finished the last one by jumping up and slicing through it as it flew by. Before any more monsters could escape, the trio quickly shut the doors, not before noticing some large, instrument-looking machine sucking up the mist from inside.

"Alright, that was annoying."

"So that machine is sucking up the mist, and producing those eggs. Just what the hell is going on here?" Zidane complained, returning his daggers to his belt.

By then, Vivi had finished crying with the help of Dagger and Koushirou, but Zidane insisted they walk down the side of the conveyer belt where the eggs were going, evident he wanted to see what was happening down here. Just behind the machine, they noticed a large running-wheel with a massive yellow bird being taunted with some radish-looking vegetable.

"So the process is powered by the chocobos..." Zidane stated, walking down to the end where the eggs entered some short of machine. There was a window but it was small and cloudy. "Are the eggs... hatching!"

He rushed through the door to the other room, the others following behind, when they saw something that shocked everyone. The eggs had indeed hatched into carbon copy black mages, all looking almost identical to Vivi, though they were taller and wore different cloaks and hats.

"W-what is going on here?" he said, terrified.

Dagger was just as in awe, speechless to say the least. Unfortunately, there wasn't time to properly examine the situation, with voices coming from behind the door. Someone was coming and they couldn't be seen here.

"We need to get out of here!" Zidane loudly whispered.

The Chosen Children nodded, but Dagger and Vivi seemed to shocked to listen, so he immediately hoisted the princess onto his shoulder and grabbed Vivi by his collar and dragged them into the room where the black mages were going into. Coffins, like the one Vivi had been in, were dropping onto the black mages, and in only a matter of moments, each member of the group found themselves caught in a coffin of their own, one by one, and sent along the conveyer belt. Each of the coffins had been shoved into a large barrel within seconds and moved onto a cart. After only another minute or so, everyone felt the motion stop.

"Are we still moving?"

"I think we stopped."

"Is everyone alright?"

"What is going on here?"

"What were those... dolls?"

"Woah!"

"Ahh!"

A sword found its way through the barrel, nearly grazing the arms of Zidane and Dagger. Everyone started wiggling and in a minute, the barrel had tipped over, giving everything the opportunity to crawl out.

"What on Gaia!" It was Steiner screaming, jumping up and down with fury.

"Rusty! You nearly stabbed Dagger!"

"The Princess!"

"Well I'm fine, at least we're out of that situation."

"Look, there!" Koushirou shouted, pointing off in the distance at some dot zooming towards them, becoming bigger and bigger as it grew closer.

"What is that?"

Another black mage, this one adorned with wings, flew at them so fast it would put an airship to shame. It teleported all around them causing everyone confusing until settling on a spot to hover.

"The princess... I come for her."

"What is the meaning of this! I am escorting the princess to the castle."

The mage didn't care, and instantly began to blast fire at everyone, a powerful magic.

"A fight! Now?" Vivi complained.

He teleported to Koushirou and pushed him over, then the same to Taichi and Zidane, using some sort of telepathic power to push them back several meters. Steiner countered with his sword but the evil mage was. Vivi grew angry at the attacking mage, and fought back with a blizzard spell, though it was countered and melted with a powerful fire spell.

"I am the Black Waltz 2! Your magic is nothing compared to mine!"

"What are you talking about!" shouted Dagger, but Zidane and Hikari understood.

"We were attacked by the first back in Ice Cavern." Zidane admitted, "It was when you were asleep."

Everyone wanted to say something, but the battle raged before anyone had a chance. The Waltz went for Taichi again, who parried with his buckler, and Hikari fired an arrow of which he teleported away from. Dagger used her magic to form barriers of protect to try and shield her friends from this speedy enemy, but her energy was starting to run low as well.

"Master Vivi!" Steiner shouted, "Let us try what we had discussed!"

This was news to the rest of the group, as Vivi cast a spell at Steiner's sword, engulfing it in fire as he let out a slash that just caught their enemy, exploding in a powerful fire spell and knocking him to the ground. Zidane and Taichi went in for the kill by shoving their blades into the chest of the Black Waltz, who began convulsing as his body started to evaporate like a dispersing cloud.

"N-no! I wont be..." but it was too late, he was gone, and everyone was left confused, tired, and worried. It was the first time the Chosen Children noticed an airship not far from where they were, which was just outside of the village farm.

Till Next Time...

* * *

**I was hoping this chapter would've been shorter... It sounded shorter on paper. =/**

**Sorry for it being late, I've been dealing with Mother's Day plans, as well as my upcoming birthday, so I've been fairly busy and left without much time to write. But here it is. Things started to rush near the end but I wanted that feel of confusion the group that were encased in the barrel were feeling. I hope I pulled that off.**

**Taichi's story: He arrived in Treno where Dr. Tot found him traveling for food and a place to stay, though he didn't have gil so was turned away everywhere. Being the nice man he is and realizing Taichi wasn't a regular bum, he offered a room for the night. In the morning he told Taichi that Dali was looking for people to help, since for those of you who have played the game, they are farming Black Mage Soldiers for Alexandria and don't have enough people to run the town and the factory, which is why their children run the shops. Luckily the group arrived just in time to meet him begging to sleep the night, and he won't need to find a job there.**

**I find it difficult to keep up dialogue with that many characters in the same scene =/ and I feel annoyed constantly writing, "he said" "she commented" "he asked" but don't really know any other way to identify who's speaking without causing confusion. Does it read okay? Does anyone have advice to make it flow better?**

**Next Chapter is the airship, which will definitely be shorter (I think), so we'll see how soon I get that out.**

**Please review, it makes me happy =)**


	5. Take Flight

**It's been a bit later than expected, so sorry... been busy celebrating my Birthday =p**

**Anyway, not much to say, I'm not getting many reviews, so I'm assuming the story is fine the way its being written.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or Final Fantasy.**

* * *

Take Flight

The group was feeling low after the fight with the Black Waltz 2. Dagger was upset at Zidane and Hikari for not telling them about the Black Waltz 1. in the Ice Cavern, Vivi was confused about the mass production of black mages under Dali, and the fact that they had just killed a different black mage, Koushirou was still muddling with his feelings for Taichi, Zidane and Hikari were sad about Dagger being upset at them, while Taichi and Steiner were both feeling fine. It was a bit strange how calm Steiner was, at least to Zidane, after Rusty had reassured that the Airship was indeed on its way to Lindblum according to the old man living out on that mountain in the distance. The thief was pretty sure Steiner was lying and the airship was really headed for Alexandria, but that wasn't anything he couldn't fix.

The group briefly returned to the Inn to retrieve the medicine Zidane had purchased earlier, as well as Dagger and Hikari's extra clothes. Yet again the innkeeper was eyeing Dagger, or so Zidane thought, when he told the man to stop staring again. It was Koushriou that realized he was really staring at Vivi, probably for the same reasons he was kidnapped only a few hours ago.

Upon returning to the airship, Steiner swiftly climbed up the latter up to the airship interior. Taichi followed with Hikari, Vivi, and Koushirou right behind. Dagger seemed to be putting up a fuss with Zidane, before he convinced her to climb aboard, none of the Chosen Children heard their conversation; yet as the last two climbed up the latter, and the airship took flight, there was a loud shout from the princess followed by a creepy "Oooh... soft!" from Zidane.

"You goosed me!" She screamed, steam practically blowing out her ears. It was clear this was a fight none of the Chosen Children wanted to get involved with, so they all walked into the airship interior, which was an engine room.

Surprising to everyone was that the ship was being operated by the same black mages that they saw underneath Dali. Vivi was trying his best to get their attention, and Koushirou didn't blame him. They all shared such similarity... the red head would be just as curious were he in the mage's shoes.

"I'm very confused about all of this." Hikari spoke up. "I mean Vivi seems like an ordinary boy, despite knowing magic of course, but... Well we just saw these other guys getting produced in a factory."

"And now their walking around just like Vivi." Taichi added, "Do you think Vivi..."

"Don't say that." It was Dagger, standing just behind them. "Vivi is just a boy, not a 'product'. He's our friend."

"You're right." Koushirou spoke, "Vivi's our friend. And that's all that matters."

Zidane had walked in, having heard what Koushirou had to say. "Of course. Why would you guys need to even question that?"

Feeling that the little magician needed space to let everything sink in, Zidane immediately climbed up the latter at the end of the room, probably up to the deck of the ship.

"Despite being an immature child half the time..." Dagger began, with a hint of venom in her voice, "He can be very intelligent."

Koushirou walked over to where Vivi was, him currently trying to converse with one of the black mage workers. "Any luck, Vivi?"

"No... they don't seem to know I'm here." He said with sorrow in his tone. Koushirou could only frown, feeling bad for the poor kid. He wished there was something he could do.

Suddenly the entire airship shook as it took a sharp turn. Even the black mages looked surprised, and that is saying something.

"What did Zidane do now..." Dagger huffed.

All the black mages climbed up the latter onto the deck, and Dagger followed them. The Chosen Children were right behind her, and Vivi was taking the rear, as everyone wanted to know what was going on. Once onto the airship deck, there seemed to be a commotion going on in the steering cabin, yet without warning, another winged black mage landed gracefully at the edge of airship, just in front of Vivi and Koushirou.

"No..." muttered the little mage.

"A child! The Black Waltz 2. was defeated by a child! Ha! How laughable."

"Vivi!" Koushirou shouted in worry for his friend.

"You want to meddle too? Fine, you two will be the first to die at the hands of the Black Waltz 3." This situation was bad, yet for whatever reason, all the other black mages casually walked in front of Vivi and Koushirou, magic flames held in their hands as if ready to protect them.

"What! You're going to protect them? Ha! Your powers are nothing compared to mine!"

Not wanting to get either of them caught in the crossfire, Koushirou dragged Vivi by his collar into the cabin where the rest of the group stood in shock, seeing the third Black Waltz. Before the black mages could even begin to put up a fight, the Black Waltz fired powerful electric magic; bolts danced in all directions from his hands, blasting the black mages backward, shattering all the glass windows around the cabin. Explosions of energy burst all around the deck, and the large barrels of black mages also burst open, as they fell to their inevitable deaths, not even awake for the first time. It all happened so quickly, but to Vivi, it was slow, and silent. The bodies of his fellow black mages all flew in slow motion over the edge of the airship, hats flying everywhere. Seeing all those black mages falling into the mist below caused an emotion so foreign to the little mage. He didn't even know how to respond, and neither did the others. Dagger tried to comfort him with a hug, Koushirou reached down to hold the mage's hand. Everyone could feel how sad this boy was, too sad for words. Everyone looked to the Black Waltz, standing with his arms crossed, his yellow eyes glowing with evil as electricity continued to cascade around his arms. It was surprisingly Vivi who acted before the rest, in a way no one had anticipated.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed, shaking his hand from Koushirou's and charging out of the cabin, towards the Black Waltz like an enraged bull. Light engulfed the little mage; his steepled hat stood upright, and his robes turned white and indigo. Vivi had went into trance.

"So you've come to fight... Ha!"

"YOU! How could you do that!" VIvi screamed, fire spell blasting out of his hands at a force unseen from him ever before. "Weren't they your friends!" the Black Waltz countered with his thunder spells; bolts of electricity dueled with blasts of fire, "Weren't they important to you!" Ice spells now flew, causing the Black Waltz to fly around the ship to dodge the massive icicles, "How could you do that to them!" thunder spells of his own did combat with the thunder spells of the Black Waltz. Everyone was in shock at Vivi's power, as magic spells flew from his hands at the pace of a machine gun.

"Friends! Ha! Why would I be friends with lowly black mage soldiers like that!" he laughed as his thunder spells began to overwhelm Vivi, "I killed them because they got in my way!" Vivi started to fall behind in the battle of spells, "Those black mages were nothing!"

"Nothing..?" Vivi whispered, "Nothing?" His thunder spells broke threw the Black Waltz's and shocked the winged mage, giving him his first surprise, "NOTHING!" Vivi's magic retracted for a split second, before he screamed out in bloody murder as he cast a fire spell so massive, the explosion rang in everyone's ears from inside the cabin, and smoke engulfed the entire front of the airship.

"Vivi!" shouted all from inside the cabin.

When the smoke cleared, the Black Waltz was gone, and Vivi had reverted to his normal state, as he solemnly looked to the only remnants of the black mages that protected him. Everyone was in awe, and Steiner ran out to try and comfort the mage.

While everyone focused on Vivi, Zidane tried to turn to other matters, "Dagger, someone needs to steer the ship. I think it should be you."

"Me?"

"This is your decision. Return to Alexandria, or go to Lindblum. Whatever choice you make, I'm behind you all the way."

"A-alright."

The Chosen Children stayed silent. A lot had happened, and there were emotions running through everyone right now. After Dagger had taken the wheel, they had hoped for everything to finally calm down from the Black Waltz business; unfortunately, that wasn't about to happen. A miniature airship flew right past them with none other than the Black Waltz 3. steering; sure enough, lightning was encasing his arm as he prepared for a spell, and everyone but Vivi took cover in the cabin. The mage instead fought back yet again with a fire spell that blasted the airship back, and Vivi collapsed from exhaustion. Zidane and Koushirou rushed forward to help Vivi get back to the cabin, and they could see the Black Waltz was still in pursuit of them. A large gate for airships was in sight, if only they could reach it in time, but they could see the doors beginning to close.

"Full speed, Dagger! We can make it!"

The Black Waltz was catching up as Zidane and Koushirou tried to drag Vivi into the safety of the cabin. Well it really wasn't that safe, but if they could make it through South Gate, they could hopefully lock out their pursuer. The cargo ship reached the first gates, and just barely squeezed in, with one of the wings grazing the side of the gate, shaking the entire ship. Vivi nearly felt off but Zidane and Koushirou held onto his arms, not letting him fall. The Black Waltz had made it through as well, and prepared a powerful thunder spell to try and finish the airship, but just as the duo holding onto Vivi were about to give up hope, the spell backfired as a bolt of lightning flew back and struck the winged mage's own engine, causing it to combust. The last thing they saw of him was a look that could only be described as, "Oh shit..."

As the cargo ship squeezed threw the second set of gates, the Black Waltz's ship exploded and collided with the second gates at the same time, creating a large explosion and an undoubtably large amount of damage, yet the group was finally save as Dagger steered them towards the grand city of Lindblum.

Till Next Time...

* * *

**See, I told you it would be shorter! Only about 2000 words this time. Though I can guarantee the next chapter will be long =/ There's a lot of information that goes on in Lindblum, not only that but I need to add some important stuff based around the Chosen Children. So I can tell you that there will be at least 2 chapters for Lindblum, but we'll see if I need more, I'm hoping not. Anyway, next chapter... Lindblum!**

**Reviews would make me very happy =)**


End file.
